


All That I've Got

by orphan_account



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst and Humor, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Developing Relationship, Dom Tony Stark, Dom/sub, F/F, I Don't Even Know, I can feel it already, I can feel that taking 80 years, I just had an idea and I wanted to try it out, I'll tag for each chapter so y'all know, Kinks will pop up, M/M, No i do not, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Slow Burn, Sub Natasha Romanov, Sub T'Challa, You Have Been Warned, all the relationships are developing, because obviously, do i ever know, everyone is suspicious of each other, i somehow almost forgot the soulmate thing omg, so i gotta get my babies to all love each other, switch Pepper Potts, that's really important
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-02-18
Packaged: 2018-09-17 15:31:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9331640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Tony was more than familiar with all the tales and stories of when you met your ‘perfect’ match and you’d love each other and go to kinky heaven. When Tony met his match he was more interested in kicking the shit out of Bucky Barnes, which later became Tony's top priority, and he hasn’t really spoken to the guy since then.He would havelikedto connect with T’Challa but now it was beyond too late given that he damn well knew he was harboring Steve and his merry band of misfits.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had a comment on another story in regards to Dom Tony saving sub T'Challa post CW and I liked aspects of the idea, so I took Dom Tony and sub T'Challa and decided to write a whole new thing that will not feature T'Challa as the damsel in distress but hey- shoutout to anneg94 for spurring this idea on. You're the real MVP.

Tony was more than familiar with all the tales and stories of when you met your ‘perfect’ match and you’d love each other and go to kinky heaven. When Tony met his match he was more interested in kicking the shit out of Bucky Barnes, which later became Tony's top priority, and he hasn’t really spoken to the guy since then. Joy. T’Challa did get electrocuted by Natasha like six times and still kept trying to kill Bucky though, so points for being able to handle pain with little to no trouble. Not that it mattered much to Tony but it was still impressive.

He would have _liked_ to connect with T’Challa but now it was beyond too late given that he damn well knew he was harboring Steve and his merry band of misfits. God even knows what they told him about Tony, fucking Lang thought he was the authority on Tony’s conscience and the guy worked with _Hank Pym_ \- like he got the right to talk about anyone’s conscious working with that asshole. Not that Tony knew who the hell Scott Lang was until he looked him up, it wasn’t like he paid attention to everyone with a gimmick these days, everyone could do something now. Besides that he had a hard time keeping up with the small team of people he was supposed to have a gimmick with and after the whole thing with the RAFT well, he was done with them for the time being. Probably the rest of time beings for the rest of forever actually- he had better things to do than play Avenger these days.

The American public- not to mention the rest of the world- was one of those things. The world was generally pretty pissed that superheroes could break out of supermax but honestly what did they expect? Sure, the RAFT was meant to house villains but Ross clearly wasn’t keeping up with the times- these days things tried to break in from _all_ directions. Including from the outside, which was honestly a very stupid oversight on his part. Of course he could count on Steve to come back for his team, it was only Tony he ever had a desire to leave behind but thankfully Viz was awesome and he came to get Tony from Siberia. But the world wasn’t impressed and the public was now currently crucifying Tony, who had stupidly gone on record saying there would be consequences. But he had been as stupid as Ross and he didn’t think that Steve would _break into the fucking RAFT_ to get his buddies out.

And that damn phone was a joke, who even used flip phones these days? Goddamn drug dealers, that’s who, and somehow he couldn’t imagine Cap selling dime bags. The media didn’t care about any of that crap though; they wanted someone’s blood and Tony was a convenient target. Too be fair he deserved at least a little of that given that he _did_ break the Accords himself to help Steve but no one even knew about that and he was content to leave that be. The last thing he needed was yet another very public mistake of his on record for the vultures to pick apart.

The one saving grace to this whole thing was Pepper, who has always been fantastic but after their breakup… something changed and not in a bad way. When they were together he was pretty sure there was too much pressure to make it work, too much pressure to fit when they so obviously didn’t. Thankfully they both agreed that they never really did fit together in a romantic way. That would have been very awkward if they hadn’t because he was the one who had brought it up and he wouldn’t have been able to walk of shame out of his own damn house. Things were calmer between them now, more conducive in building a half decent relationship. He missed the days when things with Pepper were relaxed enough to sit around watching cheesy movies with snacks and it was nice to have it back.

*

Natasha shows up unexpectedly and in the dark, scaring the hell out of Pepper as usual. She nearly drops her SI files but Natasha has fast reflexes and she catches them quickly, “sorry,” she says without really meaning it. Pepper knows she doesn’t mean it because she keeps showing up out of nowhere and scaring her half to death.

“I thought you were currently in exile,” she says somewhat stiffly, annoyed with her sub. Of course she would run off sometime after zapping the _king of Wakanda_ a few times in the process of interfering with Tony’s plans to peacefully take Steve and Bucky back into government custody. Pepper had expected nothing less from her really, she _had_ run off when she figured out that they were soul mates too but to be fair Pepper had been with Tony at the time and she had even been somewhat happy with him too. Obviously things weren’t exactly _right_ and the longer she was with him and not Natasha the worse their relationship got until it imploded and Natasha appeared in her office in the dark, scaring her enough that she damn near alerted Happy not that it would have mattered.

Against all odds Natasha had said she wanted a relationship, admitting so somewhat sheepishly and uncomfortably, which absolutely did not inspire confidence in Pepper. So she had refused, not interested in another relationship after Tony anyways and certainly not with another goddamn super hero. She had more than learned her lesson from the first time and she had no desire to repeat the experience no matter how much it hurt to turn Natasha down. But Natasha… she had looked so dejected and lost in that moment and Pepper didn’t know what to do so she had asked if Natasha was okay. She hadn’t expected a watery smile and a single nod while Natasha turned to leave the room and she _swore_ she could feel Natasha’s pain. She couldn’t obviously, soul bonds were reported to create all kinds of links but that wasn’t one of them. If that were true masochists would be shit out of luck because their partner could feel everything, but it hurt her to see Natasha upset regardless.

So she had asked Natasha to stay for dinner just to see how things went. Natasha… she had been sharp, witty, a little goofy and certainly guarded- nothing like Natalie Rushman. Pepper hadn’t even met her as Natalie until her first day of work- someone else hired her- but the first thing she had done was give Pepper a half sly smile while she assured Pepper that the bond wouldn’t influence her work. Pepper got the feeling that was more Natasha than Natalie but she had had a job to do and lying the whole time to her soul mate had been necessary apparently.

She wasn’t even a Dom like her resume said she was- she was literally the opposite of that. Not that it would have mattered to Pepper given that she had the most versatile orientation being a switch but still, it was the principal of the thing as Tony would say. But their dinner had gone well, well enough for Pepper to consider Natasha on a trial basis only her damn sub _ran off_ in the middle of that trial to god knew where. Tony had ideas but he refused to say anything for some reason. But then he didn’t really know about Natasha given that she never got around to telling him… And in her defense by the time it had become a problem Natasha’s cat was out of the bag and then there was all that baggage for both her and Tony and she had stupidly hid the information from him. Ultimately it ended their relationship; at least that was a big part of it for her. That and worrying Tony would die more often than knowing he was alive and well. It took a toll on a person to have that kind of stress in daily life.

“Are you?” Pepper asks Natasha after making her wait a sufficient amount of time to respond, drawing out the silence.

Natasha looks down for a moment, “of course. Things… things got a little out of hand and-”

“I’ll say, Tony almost _died_ and I figured this would be the least dangerous thing he’s ever done considering he was only working with his team,” Pepper snaps. “Well it turns out Steve has gotten the closest to killing him out of all the enemies Tony has made, and trust me that is no small amount of people,” Pepper assures her. Between the weapons, climate change deniers, crazy fans, villains, politicians, Ross, and a few world leaders Tony had a rather large amount of people who wanted him dead. Who would have thought it would be Captain America to nearly take him out? Certainly not Pepper, and she _certainly_ hadn’t expected her sub to help him out. Not killing Tony seemed to be a given in their relationship but apparently she was going to have to make that an explicitly stated hard limit.

“That wasn’t really planned, Pepper, you don’t understand-” Natasha starts but Pepper cuts her off.

“No, _you_ don’t understand Natasha. Now I know no one woke up that morning and decided ‘let’s try and kill Tony tonight’ aside from that coconut-headed ass that planned this whole thing but I’m still a little upset about it. Tony explained what happened and I know you like Steve better, some days I don’t hold that against you either, so I know you thought you had to help him. That’s fine. Mostly. I’m not going to get involved in that mess too much but let me make things clear for you. One, this mess is _exactly_ why I ended things with Tony. Soul mate and perfect sub or whatever or not I am not looking to repeat that experience with you. Two, if Tony dies and you are in any way involved I will _never_ speak to you again. _Ever_.” She and Tony had their differences, their many, _many_ differences but she loved him and she always would. They’ve been together a long time and she had no desire to ever have him out of her life until he was forcibly removed. These days that seemed more inevitable than not.

“I… things were never meant to end this way. We don’t want things to end this way either,” Natasha says, taking a small step closer to Pepper.

“We?” Pepper asks, honing in on the details like she always did. She notes Natasha’s body language too, keeping track of her movements because she damn well knew they were intentional. Natasha had a goal here- she could feel it. Maybe it was the bond, maybe it was the fact that Pepper was more than a little used to talking to people who only spoke to her to achieve some sort of goal but she knew.

Natasha takes another small step closer, like she was approaching a skittish animal, “Steve and the rest of the Avengers. Things went too far, we know that, but we need Tony. We need someone on our side here or we’re kind of stranded where we are,” Natasha says, taking another small step forward.

Pepper walks around the island to her kitchen, depositing her files on it and sighing. “Then you should have thought of that _before_ alienating him from the team,” Pepper says honestly. It has long annoyed her and she sort of understood, even Natasha seemed to completely misunderstand him and she’s a master spy. Yes, Tony was undoubtedly a giant asshole most of the time but he was a good man, you just had to know how to read his signals and pretty much no one figured out his code.

“I told you Pepper, we didn’t plan for this to happen, that’s hardly alienation,” she says, approaching the island.

“Did you know that proximity to your soul mate usually results in the release of chemicals in the brain associated with human bonding? With your soul mate you get more of these hormones, and when you scene together you get the endorphin rush from that too. Combined the two chemical experiences create a special bond of euphoria for the bonded pair, solidifying a soul mate bond. So what I’m saying is stop trying to get close to me in an attempt to give me a chemical high that makes me easier for you to manipulate,” Pepper says bluntly. She had known the movement was intentional and she can see Natasha hesitating now, frowning a little at being found out.

“As for the alienation, give me a break,” Pepper says, rolling her eyes. “I’m not talking about this recent pile of bad media headlines and ridiculous piles of paperwork, I mean from the beginning. The only one of you to even remotely like him is Bruce and he’s run off to wherever doing god knows what. But the rest of you? None of you ever looked past what Tony wanted you to see, no one ever does, it’s why he acts like such a jackass. It’s easier for him to push people away than risk being hurt, which becomes ironic because then his pushing people away lands him hurt and they cycle repeats but whatever. The point is that none of you ever had an interest in him outside of what he could do for you. Don’t pretend you have an interest now. It’s insulting,” Pepper tells her.

Natasha winces at the mention of Bruce and Pepper clenches her jaw, forgetting their very brief relationship. Obviously that had run a little deeper than she thought it had, something she would have known if she had ever had a real conversation with Natasha. She wondered if Bruce knew her any better, if any of the Avengers did or if Tony was right and Natasha was unable to shake her spy past. Pepper wasn’t sure what to believe, if anything.

“Pepper,” Natasha says, stepping forward but quickly stepping back when she realizes what she had done. And that right there was how she knew the difference between Natasha acting and her faking it- she was far better at faking it. At least that’s what Pepper has determined so far, though she wondered how accurate that information was.

“I’m not interested in whatever it is you need to me to wheedle out of Tony, Natasha. You all made your beds with him; it’s your job to lie in them. I’m not changing the damn sheets for you because you went and screwed them up,” Pepper says, turning away before briefly turning back. “Oh, and contrary to popular belief Tony is an evidence based thinker- even if you can’t necessarily see the evidence. What you called arrogance and ego he called not trusting information from a man who can barely remember his own name who just left an extreme dissociative state. He assumed not trusting clearly unreliable information would be obvious to a spy as world renowned as you but apparently he was wrong. Note how he changed his mind when he got real evidence,” Pepper says harshly.

With that she leaves the room, certain that Natasha knew her way out. “Pepper!” Natasha calls after her and Pepper sighs.

“That was a clear dismissal, Natasha. If you have any remaining interest in being my sub I suggest you learn how to take an order,” she calls over her shoulder, heels clicking as she continued down the hallway.

*

Tony hardly expects to run into T’Challa dealing with Ross, or anywhere given he’s from an entirely different continent, but he does. Literally. “Sorry,” Tony mumbles, uninterested in essentially being turned down again, plus he had his own crap to deal with regarding Ross.

“Tony,” T’Challa says and Tony stops, sighing quietly but he turns, waiting for T’Challa to go on. “I think he should talk,” he says after a few beats.

“Probably,” Tony agrees, not that he had a strong desire to talk to the man. He got the feeling that he already knew exactly what the sub thought of him given how guarded he looked but he gestures for T’Challa to lead the way, deciding Ross could wait. He has put the man on hold several times to watch the light blink. It was kind of calming and when Rhodey and Pepper were around it was fun to laugh when them.

T’Challa leads them away from the fuss of people, prompting Tony to wonder how he could possibly know the place to well. He decides he’d rather not know. They enter a room that looked like pretty much every conference room ever- boring with a table and chairs surrounding it, and they stand there for a solid thirty seconds silent before Tony finally decides that was enough. “Are you planning to sit?” he asks, surprised when the king’s nose tips up a little in defiance.

“No,” he says. It takes a moment for Tony to realize that T’Challa must have taken the request as demand of submission to him. Tony resists the urge to roll his eyes as he drops into the nearest chair, wondering what the hell he’s been told about Tony. Even before he ended things with weapons he was never known as a pushy Dom so he didn’t get the suspicion from the king.

“Fine, stand. It makes no difference anyways given that there is nothing between us,” Tony points out.

This earns an eyebrow raise in response, “you classify a soul bond as nothing? Odd,” he says, head tilted to the side.

At this Tony does roll his eyes, “look, if you want to cherry pick meanings from my words than just leave. I don’t have time for this and neither do you. If you want to have an actual conversation about what we’re going to do or not do about this bond then I’m here to listen. Can’t really do much about it without you anyways,” Tony points out. No agreement from your sub no negotiations, if T’Challa wasn’t on board there was nothing for him to do here except suffer with Ross.

“I am not giving up my country,” T’Challa says and Tony snorts.

“Who the hell would expect you to give that up? Obviously you aren’t giving up your country, the _fuck_?” he asks, almost laughing at the absurdity of the statement. In what world would that have even been an expectation of his or anyone else’s?

“I was told that you preferred your subs close,” T’Challa says, clearly confused now.

“Don’t know what idiot told you that but they have no knowledge of me. Pepper and I both travel a lot for business and I have my side gig as Iron Man- there’s been plenty of times where we spent more time apart than together. And even if I did prefer my subs close expecting you to just give up your country is _way_ too much to ask of anyone,” he says. As if he ever would have expected T’Challa to just kiss his country goodbye, that was flat out cruel.

“I would assume that your team mates of several years would know you well,” T’Challa says slowly, confusion growing.

“Oh, well there’s your problem. They don’t know me at all, never made the effort to and to be fair I don’t know them all that well either,” Tony says honestly.

“On any given day what does Steve Rogers eat for breakfast?” T’Challa asks.

Tony doesn’t know how this is at all relevant but he figures he’d humor T’Challa. “Oatmeal, usually with strawberries, mango if he’s feeling adventurous, and brown sugar if he’s having a bad day,” Tony says.

“What about Natasha? Clint?” T’Challa asks.

“I’ve never seen Natasha eat or drink anything ever. I’ve seen her pretend to eat or drink but never actually do it, that’s probably purposeful. Clint’ll eat anything, including literal trash. Seriously, we’ve had to take actual food that’s been thrown out out of his hands. Hope his kids don’t pick up on _that_ bad habit,” Tony mumbles, wrinkling his nose.

“Knowing a person’s eating habits displays extreme familiarity with them. I do not know what you classify as knowing a person well but you would not know the eating habits of a virtual stranger,” T’Challa says.

“Fine, semantics. They eat in patterns mostly; I’m wired to pick patterns up. Doesn’t mean I know anything about them and they know nothing at all about me,” he says right as his phone starts buzzing in his pocket. “Next time you want information on what I would or wouldn’t expect out of you as my sub, I’d suggest asking me because the Avengers don’t know anything at all about my Dom habits given that it’s something I went out of my way to hide from them. No one needs to know about what I do with my subs except my subs, thanks. But Ross is calling and unfortunately I can’t just put him on hold while I play Scrabble so I have to go. If you have any desire to talk to me ask FRIDAY for my details,” he says, picking himself up out of his chair and leaving.

“Wait, who is Friday and how do I find them?” T’Challa asks but Tony is out the door already, answering his phone to tell Ross to hold onto his britches, he’d be right there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I may regret this but I figured I'd ask the readers- any specific kinks you might want to see? My limits generally include anything regarding sex- I can't write it for the life of my atm and no one wants to read my sad attempts at it. That and anything too reminiscent of slavery, but I feel like that should freak everyone out not just me. 
> 
> Anyways, if you want to throw out an idea or two worst that can happen is that it won't show up. But I figured I'd uh... test this method out. We'll see how well this may or may not work.

Sometimes Tony missed Pepper because she was a great sub and an even better friend but then he remembered how their relationship crashed and burned and thought better of it. But at least they had a relationship first; he and T’Challa had a single glance at an airport and a pretty crappy conversation that so far hasn’t lead to anything. Tony half wants to reach out to see if _something_ might work but that was more because he was lonely than anything and that seemed like a pretty stupid reason to start a relationship. At least he’d always have those news reports of T’Challa in that cat suit- literally- because there were some great shots of his ass in all those flips he did. When he told Pepper that she had laughed and smacked his arm, citing that he was a total pig. Which to be fair that was true.

He did wonder about T’Challa though, about whether or not the bond was even viable. Some weren’t for various reasons not that science had any sort of definitive explanation for anything soul mate related. There wasn’t much for orientation either though people believed that was a genetic thing for a long time, and how orientation mixed with soul mates was an even bigger scientific mess. No one could figure out why sometimes subs were matched with other subs, why Doms were sometimes matched with Doms, why neutral people existed at all, and until the nineties everyone thought switches were fake. That didn’t even touch on poly pairings and how those worked out. Tony figures that at least he didn’t have to deal with _two_ soul mates that may or may not have had the same orientation as him on top of the rest of this mess.

That didn’t exactly make the T’Challa situation easier though and Tony was hardly an expert on relationships. He’d consider asking Pepper but that was beyond weird and Rhodey had his own shit so he was stuck wondering what, if anything, he was supposed to do here. Given their first and only conversation it didn’t seem like it was much worth it to try either, but then he was left with that pesky loneliness. Clearly he needed a wider friend base.

*

Pepper was more than used to late nights in the office, but she was not much used to interruptions, nor did she appreciate them. Natasha stands there with a bag that smelled like Chinese looking hopeful, “I um, got those noodles you like,” she says.

“How do you know what I like?” she asks, frowning.

“Tony. He was surprisingly attentive to your likes and dislikes,” she says, taking Pepper’s reaction as her cue to sit across from Pepper’s desk in a chair usually reserved for meetings.

“Not surprisingly. Tony knows plenty about anyone he cares about,” she says. The things he knew were usually odd though, like knowing the kinds of toothbrushes Pepper preferred but having no clue when her birthday was. He could recite a conversation he and Rhodey had twenty years before with perfect clarity but had no idea where Rhodey’s hometown was. Or the name of said hometown despite having been there several times. The things Tony remembered might be strange, but they were at least useful and it was nice to know that if she needed a toothbrush in a hurry she wouldn’t have to suffer with one she hated.

“I haven’t seen much evidence for that,” Natasha says though she doesn’t say it unkindly, more like she was actually lacking the observation. Pepper bites her tongue, barely resisting the urge to tell her that perhaps Tony didn’t like her enough to care about her habits. He knew Happy’s favorite show and why he liked it for gods sakes, she knew he paid attention. She just had no idea why he picked up on the things that he did.

“I’ve known him for more time than I haven’t and I dated the man for the better half of the last decade, I can assure you that if he cares he will learn things about you. How do you think all of your favorite foods were in the Tower at all times? Or how the workout space was equipped to handle super powered people? Those things didn’t _magically_ happen, especially that workout room. It took a long time for him to gauge how strong Steve was and how to actually challenge him physically.” She knew because he missed their anniversary for the third year in a row, too absorbed in his work. Though in his defense he remembered two days before and she knew date memorization was something he found useless. So he had remembered only for her benefit.

Natasha frowns, “wasn’t JARVIS in charge of food?” she asks.

“JARVIS had no idea what any of you liked, _someone_ had to figure it out and JARVIS hardly observed your eating habits. You were the only one he couldn’t figure out,” Pepper says. It drove him nuts for the longest time because Natasha didn’t seem to eat or drink around people at all. Sometimes she pretended to according to Tony, but she never actually ate anything. He weighed her food to test it and that was when Pepper decided that he was too obsessed and that he needed to leave Natasha be. She seemed to eat whatever was in her space though, just never in front of or around others. In the end the only thing Tony gathered on her eating habits was that she absolutely _hated_ pierogies.

“Oh,” Natasha says, remaining silent for a long moment before placing her bag on Pepper’s desk, gently pushing it towards her. It wasn’t difficult to deduce what Natasha had picked up for herself- she and Pepper lacked similar tastes in Chinese food but she did get those noodles Pepper liked. She doesn’t say anything but she’s grateful for the food, sometimes it was difficult to remember to eat with so much to do. She used to wonder how Tony forgot to eat all the time- unless food was left everywhere for him to find- but now she understood and she didn’t have to worry about inventing groundbreaking technology too.

Natasha digs around in the bag before finding the sweet and sour pork she got for herself and pulling it out awkwardly, sitting back in her seat like she had no idea what to do with it. “Why are you here?” Pepper asks in an attempt to save Natasha from herself. She was curious after all as to why the sub appeared to be putting effort into their relationship when she spent so long running from it. If her last appearance was any indication she wanted something, but Pepper wanted to know exactly what was happening. She’d be better prepared that way.

Pepper suspects Natasha’s opening the container her pork was in was a distraction from her question but she allows it. “I just… I’m tired of running from things,” Natasha says in a low voice, “it’s never done me any good.”

“And what makes you think I have any interest in a relationship with you? No offense, but I’ve known you a long time and I haven’t seen much that makes me think we’d be a good match,” she says. It isn’t meant to be cruel; it was a simple observation and an important one at that. If she couldn’t depend on Natasha or trust her there was nothing that could be built on that.

Natasha’s lips tip up, “no one knows me, that’s the point. I’m nameless, faceless, everywhere, and nowhere all at once. I am what I was meant to be but I don’t want to be so I’m here trying to… to make roots. You seemed like a good place to sort of expand that- I’ve already done my best at building a relationship with Steve. You’re intelligent, dependable, observant, witty, caring- all things I find desirable in a partner. I know that I have been um… absent but I’m here now and I thought that maybe we could try to make something of this bond,” she says but her words sound hollow and stiff, like she’s rehearsed this a dozen times and forgot half her lines.

Pepper carefully picks up some noodles with her chopsticks and places them in her mouth, mindful of her lipstick. “Mind trying that again but without the clear monologue you rehearsed?” Pepper asks, raising an eyebrow.

Natasha shifts uncomfortably; avoiding eye contact with Pepper though the gesture is anything but an act of submission. More like she was trying her best to find some separation between them and failing at it. She finally gathers herself though and sifts a bit, mindful of her pork. “Look, I’m a weapon and nothing more. I spent the better part of my life believing I was nothing and no one and everything and everyone all at once and it fucked me up alright? I’m not supposed to have connections to anyone or anything so the idea of a soul mate- an undeniable biological connection I can’t just sever without a second thought scares the shit out of me, okay? And you already don’t like me, and I already don’t like Tony and that’s a problem to you. I can’t get rid of this connection so I might as well work with it only I don’t even know if that’s possible,” she says, throwing her hands up in frustration.

Well, that was honest at least and Pepper sits on it, eating her noodles while Natasha shifted around uncomfortably. “I’m not trying to manipulate you,” Natasha blurts out after awhile.

“I know you aren’t Natasha. If you were this wouldn’t be that difficult for you, it never is according to Tony. He was always impressed at the way you slipped in and out of identities so easily because he could never manage. And I don’t have a problem with you disliking Tony; god knows there are some days when I dislike him too. What I don’t like is that your dislike is based off false judgments and fundamental misunderstandings of how Tony works. You aren’t the first and I doubt you’ll be the last to write him off as a narcissist without ever considering that he’s more than what he chooses to show people.” Like Natasha herself, she wants to add, but she had no idea if that was true or not. Tony didn’t seem to think so but he had been hurt by Natasha more than once even after reaching out in his own weird way, he was hardly a reliable source.

That didn’t mean that she wouldn’t take his opinion into account though, because his opinions were founded on solid experience and she wasn’t in the business of being screwed over. But she did wonder what Natasha was like, _really_ like, and as much as her better judgment warned her against it she was curious.

*

There were things Tony expected and then there was Hope van Dyne in his living room sitting beside a very uncomfortable looking Happy. She stands when he enters to room, extending her hand in a pretty business like manner and he takes it, plenty used to this kind of interaction by now. “I am a _field_ of question marks right now,” he says, curious as to what drew the woman here when her father was uh… less than fond of Starks.

“I need a favor,” she says, pleasant smile still on her face as she sits back down.

“Uh… okay? Still a field of question marks, van Dyne.” Maybe that rift between her and her father was bigger than he thought, though he heard rumors of reconciliation recently. Maybe that wasn’t true…

“I need you to get the Ant-Man suit back and a little birdy tells me you have an in,” she says.

Tony sits down and snorts, “your little birdy tweeted too soon,” he says. There was no real way for him to contact Scott Lang and even if he did have a way he wasn’t entirely sure he’d do it anyways.

“The little birdy is reliable,” Hope assures him.

“The little birdy should shut his beak before he beaks off about things he no knowledge of,” Tony shoots back.

“Can we just say Scott?” Happy asks, interrupting them, “we can use Lang if you’re uncomfortable with that,” he adds.

Hope ignores Happy, “what are you on about?” she asks.

“I mean ‘hello, this is your conscience speaking. I know we don’t talk much’,” he says, imitating Scott’s voice to the best of his abilities. “Then that asshole proceeded to try and tear my suit apart from the inside out because your father- _your father_ \- told him not to trust Starks? That’s fucking rich coming from him- he was as cold, calculating, and heartless as Howard was and then some. He has some nerve judging me based off the actions of a man who is _not_ me considering his _own_ actions. The man has _balls_ I’ll give him that,” Tony mumbles.

Hope, to her credit, doesn’t look impressed with this. “Why is it that when I have problems it’s _always_ him that’s the problem? Look, we can argue about my father all day but we both know he’s an ass so how about we agree on that and move on. I need the suit from the little birdy,” she says.

“Get the little birdy to fly it to you using his delusions as wings,” Tony counters.

“I really think Scott is sufficient, we all know who the little birdy is…” Happy says.

Hope gives him a tight smile, “I _would_ but the little birdy went and got himself wanted for _international terrorism_. So if _you_ could go talk to your rumored little birdy and get the suit from _my_ little birdy that would be lovely,” she says.

“Okay, who’s _your_ little birdy?” Happy asks Tony.

“My little birdy is more like a very angry panther, and I’m not going to get bitten for some suit I couldn’t care less about,” he says.

“But if you _do_ talk to your uh angry… panther you can try and work out that tense relationship and I get the suit back. Win-win,” she says.

“Oh I’d _love_ to see how you think that conversation will go. ‘Oh hey, I know we’re on terrible terms, maybe we could work that out. Also I’m only here because a certain annoying wasp sent me to get her little birdy’s suit. Can we work it out baby?’” he mocks, making some kissy noises.

“Okay I have t admit I’m having a hard time keeping up, who’s the wasp?” Happy asks.

“I’m the wasp,” Hope says, “you owe me Tony. I beat up your bullies.”

Tony throws his hands up, “it has been like thirty years and you’re bring _that_ up? You wanted to test how much you learned in those martial arts classes you were in, I didn’t get a say in whether or not you were going to bust that one kid’s nose! I don’t owe you for that!” Tony protests.

“I gave Justin Hammer a swirly for you,” she says.

“I risked my ass ruining like seven different projects of Pym’s only to have him blame my father for it and subsequently teach you little birdy that Starks can’t be trusted. I think I win considering your little birdy screwing me up has had drastic international consequences and Hammer only looked like more of a tit than usual,” he point out.

Hope sighs, “I didn’t want to have to do this but… we made a blood pact,” she says.

“You… there was… what the fuck do you rich kids _do_ in boarding school?” Happy asks, horrified.

“The blood pact, seriously?” Tony asks, ignoring Happy.

“You’re a man of your word, I know because the last time I brought this up you went to that wedding with me so I didn’t have to get made fun of for being single again,” Hope says.

Tony groans, remembering that horrible event with a surprising amount of clarity considering how drunk he and Hope got just to drown out Pym’s bullshit. “We were sixteen,” he reminds her, “that was a long time ago.”

“Since when does a blood pact run out?” she asks.

“Oh for fucks sakes, I’ll try to get you your damn suit back from your stupid little birdy,” Tony mumbles, “but you owe me.”

Hope stands up and grins, “I knew I could count on you. And if by any chance you could get my little birdy back with it so I can wring his birdy neck I would be eternally grateful,” she says.

“Can I watch?” he asks.

“You can immortalize it on film,” Hope says.

“You’re the best. I’ve missed you,” he says, thawing a little. It’s been a long, _long_ time since they’ve spent any time together but it was at least nice. Even if she only showed up here because of Scott and his damn suit. It still counted.

“I’ve missed you too Tony. I’m a little disappointed that you learned how to punch your bullies though, that was always my favorite part of our relationship,” she tells him. Yeah, didn’t he know it. She _lived_ to beat people up and he was more than happy to let her do it.

“Well, I do have some fond memories of hiding behind you while you threated people but yes, sadly I do know how to throw a punch now. We should train together some time,” he says.

Hope nods, “I might take you up on that. We can use my little birdy as a punching bag,” she suggests.

“Oh, that sounds awesome. You should shrink yourselves down to pocket size and beat him up tiny style too. That’d be pretty amusing.” Or maybe he was a little biased given how absolutely fond of Scott he was.

“Hmm. Well my suit _is_ finally completed,” she says, turning to go but she turns back, “and Tony, good luck with your uh… panther. The little birdy says you have a chance though.”

“Didn’t we establish that your little birdy was an idiot?” Tony asks.

“The little birdy might not have a brain on the best of days but this is the sort of thing he’s actually good with. And you’re a good man, even when you weren’t so much of a good man. I have faith you’ll work it out. You _did_ manage to screw up like seven of Hank’s projects so flawlessly he thought it was Howard. If you can do that you can figure it out with the panther,” she says.

“Mechanics are easy, panthers? Not so much,” he says.

“Can we please just use names?” Happy asks, frowning.

“Good luck Tony,” Hope says, inclining her head and leaving. Tony sighs and sits back in his seat, wondering how the hell he was going to do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering about Tony and Hope's history they went to boarding school together for a short time in between Tony finishing up grade/high school and him heading off to MIT. They were good friends because Tony was terrible at fighting off the bullies looking to pick on the kid genius, and Hope had a lot of pent up rage she let out on Tony's bullies. But they both had shitty fathers and bonded over it.
> 
> I included it because I've never thought of them as friends or knowing each other and I though ohh, wouldn't that be fun? And I've never written Hope so I wanted to give her some love.
> 
> Oh, and fuck that Scott/ Hope kiss that shit never happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for a little bit of mentioned ableism.
> 
> Kink suggestions are still open for anyone who wants to throw something out there.

The last thing Tony wanted to do was go harass T’Challa for Scott’s damn suit but he was a man of his word and he did tell Hope he’d get the damn suit back. He’s pretty sure he’s never made good on that blood pack he made with Hope so he was _so_ asking her to borrow the Ant-Man suit for a night to try and reverse engineer as much as humanly possible. If Hope took him on training together he could probably figure out the missing information from that.

But that required him to get the suit back first and after haggling with that damn guard for a solid hour T’Challa better open the damn door. He knocks and stands back, not expecting much and finding the hallway conspicuously lacking in guards. That didn’t mean he was stupid enough to think that T’Challa’s guards weren’t around. The door opens and he jumps a little and T’Challa sticks his head out, “hello,” he says, looking suspicious.

“I need a favor,” Tony says, sticking his foot in the door _just_ in time to avoid it shutting.

“You _do_ know how strong I am, right?” T’Challa asks.

“Sure, you can slam the door on my ankle and I’ll be really upset with that, but I didn’t want to show up here and act like I had some other agenda until I got to what I was actually here for. Honesty is the best policy and all that. And you don’t have to do most of the work anyways, I just need the Ant-Man suit because I made this blood pact with Hope when I was like nine and now I can’t back out and-” T’Challa cuts him off.

“I am sorry, did you just say _blood pact_?” he asks, frowning. “Do you not know about blood borne illnesses?”

“I was _nine_ ,” Tony repeats.

“You are a genius, you built your first circuit board at six,” T’Challa says.

“Well I’m sure you’re aware that intelligence in one area does not mean intelligence in all areas. Like any other nine year old I was a fucking idiot and I made a blood pact because _someone_ had to keep bullies from kicking my ass and Hope had a lot of pent up anger she wanted to take out on people’s faces. It worked okay, don’t judge me. I just need the Ant-Man suit.” Hope better freaking appreciate that he was doing thing because this was the last thing he wanted to spend his night doing. He pulls his foot from the door though because T’Challa was going to make a choice whether or not his foot was there and he wasn’t about to sacrifice his ankle if T’Challa got cranky. He needed it.

T’Challa considers him for a long moment though, “how did you find me?” he asks.

Tony sighs and accepts that this was going to be a challenge. “I looked you up, it wasn’t hard, FRIDAY found you within seconds. Then I showed up here and haggled with your guards for an hour and the fact that I can’t see them in this narrow of a space makes me nervous,” he says honestly. Where the hell _were_ they? He didn’t get the impression that they were content to just leave him alone with the king, which meant they were _somewhere_ in this hallway.

“They let you past them, then?” T’Challa asks.

“No, I somehow managed to kill a bunch of people I can’t even find in a narrow hallway just because I need some jackass’s super suit back. Yeah, obviously they let me past,” he adds when T’Challa frowns at him. Did they not have sarcasm in Wakanda?

“You are a very… prickly person,” T’Challa says.

“Coming from the guy who all but threatened to crush my ankle in his doorway that’s rich. Look, I just need to get the suit back and if you never want to see me again that’s fine, I’m not even sure there’s anything even here.” Wasn’t there supposed to be some lovey-dovey hormone flush or something? Nothing of interest seemed to be happening here aside from extreme hostility and annoyance from both of them. T’Challa’s shutting the door in his face sort of confirms his suspicions but he doesn’t move for a long while, rooted to his spot while he decided whether or not it would be worth it to knock again.

The door eventually reopens and T’Challa nods more to himself than Tony. “It appears you were wrong about nothing being there, otherwise you would not have stood at the door looking like a tit with your hand half raised to knock on it for ten minutes.”

“First, I still need that Ant-Man suit. Second, it has _not_ been ten minutes.” There was no _way_ it has been ten minutes, it was like two at best.

“I purposefully timed it. Come in,” T’Challa says much to Tony’s surprise. He opens the door wider and steps aside for Tony to enter. That was probably the nicest thing that’s happened between them by far and Tony takes advantage, stepping into T’Challa’s temporary space. Penthouses were unimpressive to him given his wealth; they were nothing new to him so he doesn’t take much time to focus on anything. It wasn’t like he’d learn anything about T’Challa anyways, not from a hotel room. T’Challa shuts the door and turns to face Tony, “I do appreciate your honesty. I dislike mind games,” he says.

He still looks put off, but not as hostile as before so that was kind of an improvement. “Neither do I. You must _love_ politics though,” Tony says sarcastically.

T’Challa frowns a little, “no, I do not. Politics are necessary but needlessly tedious due to individuals misusing their power and authority.”

“I… yeah, I knew that. I was being sarcastic. You know, purposefully using irony to mock something?” Tony adds when T’Challa looks confused.

“ _Oh_ , the voice inflection… that is how we convey sarcasm in Wakanda. Sorry,” he says, somewhat sheepish. Tony shrugs, not overly concerned about T’Challa’s misunderstanding. “Alright. Look, I will be honest here. In Wakanda submissives do not face the discrimination that they face seemingly everywhere else. I was not prepared to deal with that kind of backlash to my orientation and it has not given me much faith in anyone, especially not someone with your attitude. I have seen the videos, heard from your teammates. People agree, you are an ass and I am not in the business of being lesser,” T’Challa says.

Yeah, Tony could understand that and given T’Challa’s general demeanor he probably threw a lot of people for a loop. Submissives weren’t supposed to have the kind of presence T’Challa did- the guy radiated power and elegance. That would freak a lot of Doms out. But… “fun fact, there are only four companies in the world right now run by subs. Even more fun fact, the first company to be run by a sub was mine when I promoted Pepper Potts to the position of CEO. Technically she’s a switch, but she took the position when she was in a relationship as a sub and it was ground breaking. I understand suspicion, but gathering information from people that hate me and notoriously unreliable media sources is the _last_ way to get to know me. I am an ass though.” Might as well keep it honest- the statement was true. He’s always been a bit of a handful, everyone in his life has told him so at least once. In Howard’s case he outright told him he was a waste of space.

T’Challa takes a moment to digest that information before he speaks. “So I am gathering. You are nothing like what I expected, I expected someone more like…”

“Ross?” Tony suggests. He’d never out and out admit it, but he had a knack for hiding some pretty ignorant views under pretty words and synonyms.

“Something like that yes, or perhaps some more of America’s more regressive politicians. Imagine my surprise entering a world in which I have no respect for being born this way,” T’Challa says, rolling his eyes.

“Man, I hate to be there when you discover racism…” Tony mumbles.

“Do not be ridiculous, I knew about racism already. I was prepared for my race to be a problem in certain areas but somehow I missed the discrimination against submissives. It has thrown me, and it continues to shock me even when I expect it,” he says.

Tony sits there for a moment, unsure what to say but curiosity gets the best of him. “There’s… really no discrimination against subs in Wakanda?” It sounded way too good to be true to him honestly, like those moron Doms who thought subs were equal because it was illegal to abuse them. Except in this case T’Challa would be one of those idiot subs who agreed.

“No. There is a history of it, but that history was so long ago that subs do not feel the legacy of that. There are the occasional political outliers of course, but they are pariahs. No one with basic morals takes them seriously. In Wakanda discrimination is saved for switches and neutrals, they are thought of as unnatural and mentally ill,” he says.

“Well the evidence shows-” Tony starts, ready to defend Pepper’s orientation but T’Challa cuts him off.

“I never _I_ believe that. Just that that is the general consensus in Wakanda. There is an assumed naturalness in regards to Doms and subs and things that lie outside of that are thought to be Western a phenomenon or, as I said, mental illness. But the evidence is far too solid to deny the existence of switches and neutrals- they have been documented in nearly one hundred and fifty countries. But bigots do not focus on proof- submissives have been found to be as competent as Doms in most areas yet discrimination still exists here,” T’Challa points out.

So Tony knew. It was shocking to him how much criticism Pepper got for running things way better than he had. Granted his illogical choices and snap decisions looked confusing to anyone who wasn’t in his head- he was acting on math most people didn’t even know existed so his decisions looked reckless when they were actually highly logical. But from the outside he was a terrible CEO with some really good luck, not to mention his drug and drinking days. Christ, if it was even remotely fun he was addicted to it and people didn’t think _he_ was a bad CEO. Pepper though, she was criticized for _everything_ when she was following the same math patterns that Tony did. Sometimes he was pretty sure she was a genius too, but he’s pretty certain that she had only picked up on his patterns, not that she understood everything that went behind it. Her abilities were impressive nonetheless, and the criticism was unwarranted.

“So it does. But if you were worried about discrimination coming from me that’s not going to happen, not purposefully anyways. Natasha could have told you that,” he says.

“No offense but the woman manipulated me for her own ends and then electrocuted me several times. Forgive me for not trusting her,” T’Challa says, body language tipping back towards the hostile.

“Whoa, whoa, I don’t like her or trust her either given that she showed up as Pepper’s assistant to spy on me then wrote a rather scathing report on me as if my actions when I was _dying_ were the same as my every day actions. But she’s the only sub on the team and that’s probably the only thing she thought _didn’t_ make me the actual devil. I mean I wear red but come on, that’s just dramatic,” he says, shaking his head. Narcissistic Personality Disorder, whatever. More like Dying and Running Through a Bucket List Disorder, which he felt everyone had. Who wouldn’t want to drive a racecar at least once? Or throw a really awesome final birthday party that Natasha _agreed_ with? It didn’t end so well but until then it was fine.

T’Challa’s eyebrows go up and he relaxes some, “oh. I suppose we have something in common then. Well… I am not your typical sub,” T’Challa says, almost warns really.

Tony figures that the tentative statement meant that he was willing to at least talk some more. “I don’t really think there _is_ a typical sub considering they’re a wide-ranging group of people with various thoughts and feelings but I get what you mean. If you were worried about my ability to handle a sub that’s in a powerful position I should remind you that I promoted my last sub to CEO of my company and didn’t take it back when I managed to fix myself. I’m not stranger to a sub in what’s viewed as a dominant position. Talk to Pepper about it,” he says. She’d back up what he was saying, if with a little more critical thinking.

*

T’Challa had no idea he had wanted to hear Tony tell him that there was no typical sub, or suggesting talking to Pepper Potts. It takes seconds to figure out that she certainly was not the kind of sub America seemed obsessed with either and Tony did not seem threatened by it. Actually he did not seem threatened by T’Challa either, not once had he made a comment about his orientation in relation to his position as king or his obvious confidence in himself. Most Doms, even the ones in Wakanda, were put off by that kind of demeanor- worried that they could not handle a sub like that. To be fair most could not, T’Challa happened to be picky but he felt he had a right to be.

But Tony was something else entirely. He did not flinch when T’Challa interrupted him, he listened when he spoke, and he did not at all shy away from his hostility. His team deemed him reckless and he had read that scathing report Tony mentioned from Natasha, the one that said he rarely thought of others outside the context of his own powerful personality. He might have agreed if the evidence did not seem to support the opposite, or something in between at least. The only time Tony made an effort to seek him out the first thing he did was consider T’Challa’s feelings by not lying to him by omission to get what he wanted. Of course that made things easier on him in theory by cutting to the chase, but given his obvious suspicion of Tony showing up and asking for something would not have worked out well for him.

Given how things progressed it did end up working in his favor- Wakanda had no need for the Ant-Man suit- but his honesty struck a cord with T’Challa. So much of politics was lies and deceit, it was nice to have a change in pace. And of course he took Tony’s advice and sought out one Pepper Potts to gather what she thought of the man.

Pepper smiles at him over her cup but he knows that it is fake. He was more than aware of what a public smile looked like but he ignores it in favor of listening to what Pepper had to say. “Look, Tony has a lot of flaws- a _lot_ of flaws- but he’s never been a bad Dom. That’s probably the only thing he’s never screwed up at some point honestly,” she tells him, looking a bit surprised, like she would have expected failure there for some reason.

“Is… there a reason you’re surprised at that?” he asks.

She sighs, “you have to remember that I’ve known Tony a long time, long before he became Iron Man. When I first knew him he was just starting to drink more, party more, he was always doing something reckless and stupid with no thought to much anything, himself included. When you know someone _that_ destructive it comes as a surprise that he takes aftercare very seriously, and that he somehow manages to make mini contracts for one night stands to cover his sub’s asses. Trust me, when I first met him I figured he’d be like pretty much every other Dom I met or worse. That’s never been true though, even though I’m a switch.”

Hmm. Tony’s teammates seemed at a loss as to what he was like as a Dom but Tony explicitly stated not telling anyone what he and his subs did behind closed doors. It was her last comment that attracts his attention though, “even though you are a switch?” From what he understood switches and neutrals were relatively ignored here but perhaps he was wrong. Maybe he only perceived it that way because his own country focused heavily on switches and neutrals in a way the rest of the world did not seem to.

“Yeah, you know how it is,” she says. He did not but thankfully she elaborates. “People like to think you can’t be a good sub because you’ll always have that Dominant side of you, or that you can’t be a good Dom because you’ll always have that submissive side. I don’t think people realize how adaptable switches are but they don’t care to understand either.” No they did not, especially in T’Challa’s experience.

“Tony did not assume that, then?” he asks.

“No. He’s probably the first person I’ve ever met that took my word for it when I said I could handle being a sub or a Dom depending on what I needed to be. Everyone else likes to assume you’re secretly faking it half the time- that switches need to be fifty percent sub and fifty percent Dom or they’ll… I don’t know, explode or something. But we don’t and Tony was the first I’ve met to actually believe that,” she says.

T’Challa keeps this in mind, soaking in the information from an actual switch because he has never met one before. At least not one that felt comfortable enough telling him about it and for good reason- who knew what the king’s son would react like? If he reacted badly that could have drastic affects on the entire _country_. The information on Tony was interesting too, how he was easily able to accept Pepper’s words and experiences. He had a considerable amount of trouble convincing people he was a sub outside of Wakanda and in his country Doms shied away from a sub that was in such a powerful position, threatened by his authority. He supposed it was natural to question the dynamic he would have with them when he was to become king, therefore having far more power than they ever would. Being king has not made that easier.

This seemed to be limited to him though because whenever he mentioned it to other subs, even those in high political positions, they looked at him like he grew a second head. Apparently it was only being a prince or a king as a sub that threw Doms off. Unless, perhaps, they were Tony.

“So Tony was never… threatened by your position of power? Your obvious dominance in other areas?” Pepper was perhaps the closest personality-wise to him as he could get- most subs did not carry themselves like he did and that was fine. But his ability to submit has never been an effortless one.

Pepper huffs out a laugh, “no. He once told me that he wasn’t threatened because I always knew my place, which I didn’t understand because I was never submissive one hundred percent of the time. Or even fifty percent of the time. It took me a long time to realize that he wasn’t threatened because he saw me as an equal, not subservient.” Pepper smiles a little but it’s sad and a little strained, like it pained her to come to that conclusion. T’Challa supposed he would be sad too if he came to the conclusion that his partner confused him because he was seen as an equal instead of a glorified slave. But the statement said a lot about Tony Stark and T’Challa was curious.


	4. Chapter 4

T’Challa was not certain what to make of Tony because everyone but Pepper Potts seemed to view him in a particular and not very flattering way. However in the last two conversations he’s had with the man Tony has proven himself to be well spoken, honest, and he was not intimidated by T’Challa whatsoever. It was a rarity to find a Dom that was not immediately put off by the way he exuded dominance, to be automatically worried that he would not submit to them. To be fair they were correct, he has and will remain a picky and unruly sub.

His father once told him that submission was a gift, that he should not give it to anyone who did not earn it. He felt that was a logical way to view his position as a sub but Tony’s culture did not allow for that. To a point his own culture did not allow for that- submission and Dominance were expected and to question this was taboo. T’Challa felt it was natural to question things, which was perhaps why he had believed the evidence for the existence of switches and neutrals so easily while the rest of his country lagged behind. He knew from experience that the roles that Wakanda pressed onto Doms and subs were not as simple and clear-cut as they were portrayed and that there was often a lot of room for fluctuation. He was a sub, always has been, and yet he was also the leader of a nation- submission did not lend itself nicely to leadership but his entire existence was not comprised only as his role as submissive.

America was even more clear-cut in its assumptions about Doms and subs and anything that strayed was demonized. Strangely being a Dom and a sub was tied into gender roles too, which confused T’Challa because there was no correlation in Wakanda. Tony obviously did not buy into that either if his relationship with Pepper Potts was any indication- she did not fit into any role neatly being a switch and an obviously vocal woman. That was considerably comforting and more than that Pepper spoke highly of Tony, though in a completely contradictory way than everyone else did. But she expressly stated that he had flaws also, and listed a few. Clearly she was under no impression that Tony Stark was perfect so her opinion was not tainted by an assumption that the man could do no wrong.

That begged the question of _why_ everyone seemed to see Tony as something other than the person he was according to Pepper Potts. The media, upon some further research, did not appear to be reliable on _any_ fronts. He had made the rather silly assumption that at least some of the sources would be reasonable and reliable- Wakanda certainly had annoying tabloids but journalism was still there to pursue the truth, not to sell whatever they could. That had been proven by looking himself up and finding some _interesting_ results. Yet Tony did not hold that against him even though he could have. He certainly was not fond of what American media had to say about his country.

Either way he had some exploring to do in regards to Tony and his rough start would likely not yield very good results.

*

Natasha has no clue where to start with Pepper so she just sort of… shows up places where she know Pepper will be. Pepper doesn’t seem to be impressed with this but Natasha isn’t sure if Pepper is annoyed with her unexpected presence or her disappearing for so long only to reappear again sometime later. It didn’t help that she’s never exactly been reliable to anything but her missions and Pepper was a person, not a mission so unfortunately she couldn’t treat her as a methodical thing that needed to be done. Things would be easier if she could pretend Pepper was a mission, sweeten her up and be everything Pepper has ever wanted. But that was something she did when he was looking for something, when she intended to manipulate people. She was never _herself_ in those moments and she doubted that Pepper wanted that.

“You’re back,” Pepper says to her, sitting in the chair behind her desk. She still keeps her distance, Natasha notes, likely due to her attempting to manipulate the bond early on. In hindsight that was a bad plan but the Avengers needed Tony and she had a mission. It hadn’t occurred to her until it was too late that her mission would interfere with her personal life. It didn’t occur to her with Steve either, she had just set out to complete her mission with no attention to how it might affect others. That was what she was designed to do and empathy… that was hard for her sometimes. It wasn’t that she lacked empathy, she was just used to ignoring any instincts that she had to think of others.

The Red Room had no use for Widows that thought of anything other than their missions and she has always been the best. Her handlers used to praise her ability to get anything done no matter how gruesome or bloody. She once shot her best friend in the shower because she grew too close to her mission and made the mistake of telling Natasha this. She hadn’t wanted to shoot Melina but as her superiors had said, she wore her costume well. _Too_ well. Natasha always wore her costumes well too but she never forgot her allegiances, never let her costume sink in to her bones, never let personhood define her. She was defined by mission objectives and loyalty to the Red Room until Clint.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered defecting before but she knew no life outside of missions, had no personality outside of the ones constructed for her, and no life besides the Red Room. Yes, biologically she was a sub but she could be whatever the mission called for. Yes, she was a woman, but only enough of one to use it to her advantage. Men underestimated her or wanted to sleep with her and it never ended well for them. Something Tony Stark knew all too well though that was a lesson he never forgot. Now he was suspicious of everyone but she suspected that was because of the channels she came through. Anyone could be another her after all, that was the point.

But when Clint showed up he did something odd. Two things actually- one, he defected from his obvious mission director and two, he offered her a job if she stopped shooting at him. She had long grown to resent the Red Room at that point and SHIELD offered the comforts of her usual status so she had gone along with Clint, leaving her old position behind effortlessly because she had new mission directives now. But SHIELD did a lot of things differently than the Red Room and it confused her at first. Her new terrain was rocky and bizarre, like walking around in the real world. Her espionage skills were suburb of course, all the agents marveled at her abilities but they didn’t like her.

Likability was never something Natasha was concerned with, she had no time to be liked, she had missions. But SHIELD expected her to have a personality so she began to fabricate one that they might like. She took Coulson’s no nonsense attitude to her work, Clint’s quirkiness in the lunchroom, Maria’s snark, and Fury’s ability to scare the shit out of anyone just looking at them. To be fair she likely already achieved that last one on her own. SHIELD reports on her began to come back different, her likability had increased and that was important, she was told, because she needed to work with a team. Another concept that was foreign to her at the time because she was wildly talented, she never needed a team to get things done and she found that others got in her way.

Fury had simultaneously liked and hated her ability to work as a one woman team and made her a deal. She would work with her team without getting in the way and she got her own private missions that no one else knew about. It was an important level of trust from Fury she knew, he was classically secretive, paranoid, and near completely unwilling to share. Her first mission had been to assassinate an old member of the Red Room. A test, Natasha knew, to test her loyalty and she passed easily, taking out a few extras in her wake. Imagine Russia’s surprise when the Red Death showed up on their turf, leaving _their_ red behind. She imagined that they weren’t impressed but she didn’t care. Her loyalty was not to them anymore. Her teamwork skills also increased considerably because she mostly tuned out the useless yammering.

She still had trouble with connections though, they were difficult for her to find and maintain. Clint had been the first to make a true connection with her sitting down and showing her a picture of his secret children one day, trusting her with a piece of information that was extremely sensitive with the assumption that she would do nothing with it. She doesn’t do anything and she tells him his children were cute because they were. Next to make a connection was Coulson, who bonded with her over an abundance of paperwork mostly due to Clint not following orders. Next was Maria, who was also one of Fury’s most trusted and also a victim of the quiet misogyny that permeated SHIELD headquarters. Men were stupid enough to underestimate the both of them and quick to judge them harshly when they got through missions far quicker than anyone else could. Jealous assholes, Maria called them.

Natasha was inclined to agree, though Maria thought they were jealous of their position when Natasha knew they were only angry because those men would never achieve what she and Maria had. They were not as good, not as tough, and Fury would never trust them like he trusted Maria, Phil, and her. Fury had been the last to make an emotional connection with her before the Avengers, quietly inviting her to lunch to give her her secret missions. She gave all the information she ha on the Red Room to him and he gave her the comfort of knowing they were doing something about it. Plus he didn’t expect something out of her, she could simply _be_ in his presence and it had been… nice.

Nice was foreign to her, all emotion was really, but without the regular electroshock therapy and conditioning her emotions filtered back in. Since then she has been at a loss due to improper socialization, torture, working with a secret government agency that played off of her inability to connect with others and poor socialization, and no mental support system. Clint was the closest she had, Phil died, Fury was doing whatever he was doing, and now all she had left was Steve and a tentative relationship with Laura Barton and Maria Hill. It wasn’t much of anything and here she was trying to extend some sort of emotional connection to Pepper Potts, her apparent soul mate, and she didn’t even know where to start.

All she’s done has run from the woman, making sure to have as little contact as possible with her just in case that connection they had actually formed. The bond could tell people things and it terrified her to know Pepper might know her, _really_ know her. Or rather know that there was nothing _to_ know. Natasha was a fabrication of her own making, not a real person and she had no idea how to make her show a reality. More than that if that connection formed people would find out and soul mates were useful things to use against people. Natasha has used them many times herself and it would be dangerous to put Pepper in that kind of danger. But there was something there that was oddly out of place without her and her only connection to her- Tony- was now gone. That was one of his better qualities, his relationship with Pepper. The rest was just a mess she had no desire to go near. Too messy psychologically to be anything worth her time.

But Pepper was not as cooperative as she learned soul mates would be. They were supposed to desire being with their mate, not look at them like a bug under a magnifying glass in a science class. “Have you ever been a sub?” she asks and Natasha finds the question odd.

“Of course I have,” she says. She has been many things, that was certainly one of them.

Pepper shakes her head, “have _you_ been a sub before?” Natasha knows what the difference in the phrasing means and she doesn’t like it. “I thought so. Are you willing to try something now?” she asks.

Natasha frowns, unsure where this was going but she was willing to play along. If she was going to have this bond she was going to figure out how to handle it and manage it. Her life has reached a point where it would be impossible for anything else to happen so she has accepted the inevitable. She nods so Pepper will go on with whatever it is she has planned.

“Come here,” Pepper says, using her head to gesture for Natasha to come closer.

She hesitates for only a moment before picking herself up. It was senseless to be nervous of Pepper, she was stronger, faster, and certainly more versed in any sort of fighting. Pepper was no danger to her except maybe emotionally but even then she’s handled worse. As she walks closer Pepper stands, smoothing out her skirt and straightening her back as she does so. “On your knees,” she says softly but the command is still very clear.

Natasha gently lowers herself to the ground and positions herself correctly; eyes down like a proper sub. Pepper gives her no further instructions and Natasha fights the urge to fidget like an expert, used to being antsy without an order. “How do you feel?” Pepper asks eventually.

“Fine,” Natasha answers automatically.

“Answer correctly,” Pepper says, tone strict and unforgiving. Natasha almost fidgets then, discomfort curling in her gut at the feeling of displeasing her Dom. That was peculiar; she almost never got these urges anymore. She’s been trained to ignore them when she did anyways. Medical science said that could ruin a sub, not giving into their submissive ‘needs’ but she thought that was a load of shit invented by Doms who wanted to feel necessary. She was living proof.

“I feel… odd. A little uncomfortable but I always do when I don’t know what’s expected of me. I don’t know what you’re looking for,” she admits eventually.

“I expect honesty and open communication. Don’t ever tell me you’re fine when you aren’t ever again,” Pepper tells her and she sits back down at her desk, leaving Natasha kneeling there feeling a bit lost on what to do. She settles on staying while she listens to Pepper type away at her computer.

“Why did you stay there?” Pepper asks sometime later.

Natasha considers her answer for a few moments before answering. “I don’t know. I don’t know what was expected of me so I stayed here to see if you had something else you might want me to do. Apparently I was sort of correct,” she says finally.

“Good,” Pepper murmurs, “thank you for your honesty.” Natasha smiles just a little as he feels a light tingling feeling hit her skin. It was a foreign feeling but a pleasant one at least. She wouldn’t mind feeling it again.

*

“No,” Hope says and Tony clutches the Ant-Man suit to his chest tighter.

“One night,” he says, “you owe me. You’re little birdy was an asshole about giving this back.” T’Challa hadn’t been impressed with that and Tony had outright laughed when T’Challa said he had told Scott in no uncertain terms that he was nice enough to harbor him in his country, he was also cruel enough to kick him back out. T’Challa had looked surprised but Tony has long had a thing for subs with a backbone. It was attractive to him, the ability to stand up for yourself, plus it was useful in a scene. Tony has never been fond of the ‘do as your Dom says always regardless of your own limits’ kind of sub because it felt too close to abuse for him. If it was negotiated that was one thing, but if the submission was obviously only for his own benefit it wigged him out. So T’Challa’s clear willingness to call people out was a benefit to him more than a downside and it was obvious T’Challa had been worried about how Tony would perceive that.

“The little birdy needs to be tossed from the nest with no wings. You are _not_ borrowing the suit for a night,” Hope tells him.

“Blood pact. I’ve never used it and you’ve used it twice so I get double the weight here, maybe even triple considering all those projects of Pym’s I messed up for you. Quadruple if you count all the talking I had to put up with at that wedding you all but forced me into going to. You. Owe. Me.” Plus there was also that leaving school and not talking to him for twenty plus years, that had to count for something too but he doesn’t use that quiet yet because he might need leverage later.

“I know you’re going to try and reverse engineer the suit, Tony. I’m not an idiot,” Hope says.

“Well I never thought you’d think I’d do anything else with it. The hell else would I keep this horrible getup around for? What even _is_ this helmet?” he asks, looking at the hideous design on it. _Ew_.

“I’m not going to let you reverse engineer the suit, Tony! It’s dangerous!”

“So? Mine isn’t exactly safe. _One_ night, Hope. You can have it back the next day and I’ll even throw in a personal number to your little birdy so you can ream him out over the phone. I want to listen to the phone call though, that’s my only stipulation. So call him when you come to pick up the suit. Also the time difference between here and Wakanda is roughly seven hours so make sure to call him in the dead of night,” Tony says, offering up a helpful tip. Little birdy was going to be waking up to someone else doing the tweeting this time. And that asshat deserved it.

Hope considers his offer for a long moment, “you aren’t going to give up are you?” she asks.

“Nope.”

“You’ve already ran sans on it, haven’t you?”

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“ _One_ night Tony, and I’m calling my little birdy right now to tell him what an ass he is,” Hope says, holding out her hand for the number. Tony gives it up easily enough. “How did it go with the panther?” Hope asks once the number is secured in her purse.

“Better than expected but I think that’s because I wasn’t what he expected,” Tony says, shrugging.

“Well I’ve never found you to be predictable. Perhaps your panther picked up on the ‘expect the unexpected’ thing with you. I want that suit back at ten a.m tomorrow,” Hope tells him.

“Sure thing, and make sure to stick around long enough so annoy your little birdy with a late night phone call that I can witness,” he says.

“If you buy food Ill be here.”

“Still like Greek?” he asks.

‘I could never give up Greek. See you tomorrow at ten Tony, and do _not_ stall for time,” she says and leaves with that last warning. Tony all but runs down to his lab.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for a mention of child abuse towards the end and some implied Red Room stuff with Natasha.

T’Challa drinks his tea while Shuri wrinkles her nose at him. “Just leave him be and find a nice girl in Wakanda, that would be much better than this… Tony Stark person. He seems like an ass,” she says. T’Challa agreed that Tony certainly did seem like he was not much worth his time, but Tony in person was something of a different story. Finding someone who was not immediately put off by his obvious air of dominance even before they found out he was a sub. His childhood friend B’Tumba had grown jealous of his natural talent and leadership that he eventually tried to kill T’Challa. It did not end well because T’Challa was naturally a better fighter too, which must have been a blow to the ego though T’Challa could not bring himself to pity his old friend. Tony did not seem particularly concerned with his obvious belligerence though and given his past with his ability to easily intimidate people completely by accident he was curious.

“I have no idea why you are suddenly so invested in my love life, Shuri, but I would prefer if you were not invested,” he tells her. His Dom was none of her concern anyways, or anyone else’s but his own.

“I am just saying, leave the American out of it. You have better options here,” she says.

“Find me a single Dom who is not put off by the fact that I seem to have a more domineering than they do and I will be impressed,” he counters. It was far worse everywhere else- last week he had some random politician attempt to Dom him into agreeing with whatever it was he put forward. He was not impressed when T’Challa quickly slapped that down and told him that a move like that would be cause for arrest in his home country. Attempting to coerce a sub into a position they would not otherwise accept was a particularly offensive crime in Wakanda but it seemed to be a popular political technique in other parts of the world. It seemed the world’s shadiest politicians were not impressed with his easy ability to avoid that coercion.

“I’m sure we could find someone. I’m sure Stark is put off by your… _presence_ too, he is quite egotistical. Seems like the type that would be easily bruised if his sub was not a wilting flower,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

“Your crude attempts at manipulation are not going to work, Shuri, so quit while you are ahead. Your assessment of Tony is wrong anyways. The first time we met he asked me to sit down and I refused, he did not take offense and sat himself, all while maintaining his own presence.” That had been rather unusual in regards to T’Challa’s own experience, but especially odd considering the culture Tony lived in. T’Challa’s presence in the general public would have been frowned upon not that long ago and the consequences of that inequality was still playing out in America and other closely tied countries. The notion that his presence outside his relationship would have been cause for concern at _all_ was bizarre to T’Challa. Obviously subs had interests, goals, and aspirations outside of their Doms but that did not seem to translate well to more traditionalistic people.

“That is not true, is it?” she asks, frowning some when T’Challa gives her a _look_.

“I am not stupid, Shuri, I know what an affronted Dom looks like. I have to spend an unfortunate amount of time with them in the political arena. Tony Stark was not anything like them, he seemed unconcerned with my unwillingness to comply and he certainly did not undermine his position as a Dom.” That remained consistent across the next few times they met too- Tony seemed to have no issues quietly maintaining his position as Dom regardless of T’Challa’s obvious unwillingness to submit easily. It seemed to come effortlessly even in a situation where his position could be perceived as being threatened. T’Challa thought Doms everywhere could learn a thing or two from Tony’s obvious and unquestioned confidence but he doubted any of them would learn. There was too much of an expectation that certain groups of people must act in certain ways for anyone to understand why Tony’s confidence was necessary. After all most subs did not carry themselves like a king or a prince, that was just T’Challa.

Shuri’s eyebrows rise in response to his words though, “seriously?” she asks.

“No, I am making this all up,” he says sarcastically and Shuri frowns, “sarcasm,” he tells her, attempting to solve the confusion but he only seems to make it worse. “It is how they say it in English, leave me be. Regardless, I would like to explore Tony Stark further and even if I did not I have no strong desire for a relationship. I am only exploring this one due to biological circumstance and curiosity.” It was not often that he met a Dom like Tony. Actually he has never met a Dom like Tony- most were confused by T’Challa’s not acting like a ‘typical’ sub. He assumed that that was due to his position as a member of the royal family- they were all expected to be at least a little domineering and he was to be king. Obviously he could not be willing to fall to his knees whenever he saw a Dom and the thought of doing anything of the sort made his skin crawl.

Shuri does not look impressed but he knows she will not press this much further. “I still think you would be better off without Stark,” she says.

“Then I guess it is a good thing that I do not care what you think, I care what _I_ think,” he says, his tone giving off a note of finality.

*

Natasha has done many things in her life and has had many things done to her, but having her hair brushed was not one of those things. If she paid attention to it at all it was only to wrangle it into a presentable state and that was that. Pepper, though, had suggested it and Natasha didn’t see the harm in having someone else deal with her hair for once. Now that she was sitting here, though, she wasn’t sure how she felt. The rhythmic movement of the brush combing through her hair should be comforting she supposed, maybe even pleasant but the action put her on edge for some reason. She didn’t tense though, of give any other indication that she was not fond of the action in part because she had no idea _why_ she was uncomfortable but mostly because she didn’t want to displease Pepper. She’s already done so much to inconvenience her that she didn’t want to add to the list.

“How is this?” Pepper asks some time after she started, brush flowing through Natasha’s hair easily now that Pepper worked all the knots out. Natasha doesn’t answer right away and the brush stops moving, pulling away from her head.

“Its fine,” she says quickly, not wanting to irritate Pepper.

“No it isn’t,” Pepper says in a matter-of-fact tone that makes Natasha nervous. “You hesitated when I asked if this was okay, but you aren’t tense at all and there doesn’t seem to be any indication that you dislike this. Explain,” Pepper tells her. The command wasn’t heavy-handed in the way Natasha was used to from Doms who assumed their authority was the end of discussion. Instead Pepper held a quiet kind of Domination and strangely Natasha felt her commands much more than she would have if her commands had been sharp and the submission expected. Doms like that always made her want to hit them. Sometimes repeatedly.

“I don’t know,” Natasha mumbles after Pepper’s question lingers unanswered for too long. She doesn’t like the answer but she didn’t have anything better for her either.

Pepper doesn’t seem to be offended by this, sitting back in her seat instead to examine Natasha. “Think about it. Something about the situation put you off enough to hide it from me, which I _don’t_ want you to do by the way,” Pepper says in a stern tone.

“I didn’t want to disappoint you,” Natasha tells her quietly.

“Telling me that you’re uncomfortable will not disappoint me, but hiding discomfort from me will,” Pepper tells her.

“I don’t even know why I was uncomfortable, its stupid to say you’re uncomfortable without a real reason,” she mumbles. What was the point in ruining Pepper’s fun over some arbitrary feeling that existed for no reason?

“There is no ‘stupid’ reason for being uncomfortable with something Natasha. Do _not_ hide your discomfort from me out of some misguided attempt to make me happy. It won’t end well for anyone, least of all you,” Pepper says. She leaves it at that and sits back on her couch to do… something. Natasha hears her tap at the screen on her phone and assumes she’s answering emails for work or something so she remains in her spot, unsure of what was expected from her.

Natasha didn’t know what to make of Pepper as a Dom. She was used to rough Doms who all but forced her into whatever it was they wanted from her and she complied, of course, because she needed something from them and they usually ended up dead anyways. She’s played Dom of course, but her general motivation was the same. Distract them long enough to get what she wanted and she’s always been damn good at her job. Pepper though she was so… gentle and she had no idea what that meant. BDSM on principal generally involved pain and yet here she was brushing Natasha’s hair. What was the point? What did Pepper even get out of that?

The Red Room had taught her many things and how to handle high amounts of pain that stretched the capabilities of the human body was among her top three lessons. Loyalty and various fighting styles with and without weapons were next. Loyalties changed though, and her skills were more often used against the Red Room than for them these days, but her ability to handle pain has never led to unexpected avenues until now. She was plenty used to playing sub but she’s never had a Dom more interested in brushing her hair than flogging her or something. Not that flogging was particularly painful.

She sits in silence for a long time while Pepper taps away at her phone before Pepper reaches out, gently smoothing out her hair and she jumps completely by accident. “Sorry,” she mumbles, rearranging herself and resolving to pay more attention so she wasn’t jumpy. Subs weren’t meant to be jumpy.

“Don’t apologize. Tell me what was wrong, Natasha,” Pepper says. She has that soft command in her voice again and Natasha almost feels compelled to answer but she quells the instinct quickly, used to pretending she was not a sub.

Pepper seems content to let her gather her thoughts for a few moments because she doesn’t demand Natasha answer her when she doesn’t answer right away. “I… I’m not used to this,” she says eventually because it was the best she could do.

“What is ‘this’, exactly?” Pepper asks, going exactly where Natasha didn’t want her to go.

“ _This_ ,” she says more forcefully, “why brush my hair? Why pet my head or whatever that was? What is the point in that?”

“What’s the point in being _gentle_ , you mean?” Pepper says, her voice going up at the end like it was a question but the comment was certainly more of a statement.

“No… well yes. Why would you want that?” she asks.

“Why don’t I want to hurt you is what you’re asking,” Pepper says bluntly.

“Stop decoding what I’m saying. I don’t like it,” Natasha mumbles.

“Turn around,” Pepper instructs and Natasha turns slowly to face her. “Eyes up,” Pepper tells her when she keeps her head down. She complies and Pepper sits up in her spot, straightening her spine. “What kinds of submission have you been involved in?” she asks.

Natasha shrugs, “a bit of everything,” she says. People had wide-ranging interests and desires; she’s catered to a lot over the years from both sides of the spectrum.

“But nothing sensual?” Pepper asks. Natasha shrugs again, guessing that she hadn’t if she was surprised by this. Pepper considers this for a long moment before speaking, “I prefer sensual BDSM, always have. Not that I don’t throw in some pain play too, it can spice things up a little, but I like grooming my subs, making them feel precious and cared for. if that’s something you’re uncomfortable with than we should work something else out,” she says.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Natasha says quickly, maybe too quickly if Pepper’s raised eyebrow is any indication. “I just… I need to get used to that. I’ve never had someone take care of me, not without strings attached, and I don’t take care of others either. I was made to be solitary, able to take care of myself and unable to make connections to others. I’ve never needed someone to take care of me, never will. This is new territory and I just need time to adjust.” That was all, she just needed time.

“Have you ever let someone take care of you? Pamper you? Something tells me you’ll find that a lot harder than you think it would be,” Pepper says softly.

Natasha shakes her head, “how hard can it be to let someone groom me? Saves me the trouble of doing it myself,” she says honestly.

“Clear your schedule for tomorrow than, and come up with a safe word.” Natasha frowns because she doesn’t think she’d really need a safe word for being _groomed_ of all things but Pepper looks serious to she resolves to think about it.

*

“What did you get from the suit?” Hope asks, surprisingly waiting until after dinner to ask.

“Totally managed to isolate the Pym particle, go me, and I almost completely reverse engineered the suit too. And made that helmet design a whole lot les hideous. If you want the helmet design I’ll give it to you but keep it away from your little birdy, he can remain hideous forever,” Tony says, wrinkling his nose. Scott fucking Lang, what an _ass_ and here he was insulting Tony.

“Was that ketchup stain you too?” Hope asks, raising an eyebrow.

“How often do I even eat ketchup?” The question is meant to be rhetorical but apparently Hope misses the memo because she still expects an answer. “No it wasn’t me, I barely eat the condiment.” Not to mention the things he ate in the lab were usually small things like cut up fruits, cut up veggies, or other snack foods that the bots left around to ensure that he ate. He had a bad habit of being absorbed in his work but if the food was there he’d eat it, same with drinks. Otherwise he’d completely forget until suddenly he felt like he was about to pass out. Dummy freaked out when he did that though so he refrained from doing that as much as possible to spare the bot a panic attack.

“I’m going to kick Scott’s ass for getting a god damn ketchup stain on the Ant-Man suit,” Hope says, looking ready to whip out her phone, reach through the fiber optics and strangle Scott that way. Tony would pay good money to make that possible just so he could watch her do it.

“This is why my suit is metal, it’s easy to clean. I power wash it and all those donut crumbs are gone,” he says, grinning when Hope gives him a dirty look.

“Well if you keep eating those donuts you’ll get softer around the middle,” she tells him, poking him in the side.

“I am not soft in the middle! That’s just my body!” he says, hugging his midsection.

“Your soft body,” Hope says, snickering when he looks down at himself to see if she was right. “If you want we could box again. I remember the last time pretty clearly,” she says. She outright laughs when Tony makes an annoyed noise.

“First, you cheated, second, I’ve spent a _lot_ of time boxing since then and I’m actually pretty good now thanks. So take _that_ ,” he says, nose in the air. She had been the only reason he had an interest in the sport and Howard had been thrilled he wanted to take up the masculine sport. Tony had a tendency to shy away from all sports because _no_ , his face was pretty and he wasn’t going to have someone _punch_ it but Hope had to go _down_. He had never fulfilled that wish but he had kept up with it because he found it enjoyable and one time when Howard had gotten really nasty Tony tested his skills on his asshole father’s face and knocked him out. He also nearly broke his hand and had hell to pay when Howard woke up but in the meantime it was _glorious_.

“Only one way to find out if you’ve improved or not,” Hope says, “get your ass in the ring I _know_ you have lingering around here somewhere.”

Tony gives it a valiant try but Hope ends up laughing her ass off when he fails to last more than five minutes. In his defense Hope was a damn dirty cheater but she at least offered to teach him how to be a damn dirty cheater too.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not totally happy with this chapter but it is here and finished. 
> 
> Of course now I'm half debating on pairing Rhodey with Hope because that was a thing I thought of when writing the end bit for this.

“You were a real ass, no offense,” Tony says to T’Challa. It wasn’t meant as an insult, he was just stating facts here.

T’Challa, thankfully, doesn’t seem to take offense to Tony’s blunt statement or if he does Tony doesn’t notice. That could be because they were currently talking over video call rather than “And you were not. I was expecting… well the man I’ve seen in the media and the one the Avengers described. You were nothing like that in real life but these people can not all be perceiving someone totally different than I am,” T’Challa says.

He considers his words for a long moment before he speaks. “Everyone tells me that I don’t work well in a team, that I’m emotionally closed off, that I don’t trust easy. All of that is true and all of those things have managed to ruin near every relationship I’ve ever had. I figured I’d switch it up this time, be honest and open, let go a little emotionally. Then when this all goes to shit it won’t be my fault.” No one could blame him not being open enough, or not nice enough, or too distant, or whatever other bullshit excuse that was tossed his way this time. It was always something new and oddly no one ever seemed to hear out why _he_ thought the relationship failed. Sometimes things were his fault, well, most of the time, but sometimes it was someone else who did something wrong but no one talked about what happened when it wasn’t actually him that tanked a relationship.

T’Challa’s eyebrows lift, “so… in an attempt to arm yourself against me you are opening yourself up to me? Interesting tactic. Does this happen often? You being blamed for relationships ending, you have implied that being open is not normal for you,” he says, waving a hand dismissively.

“All the time. I figure I haven’t really got much to loose by trying something different with you, besides, we’re supposed to be perfect for each other or something like that.” Not that he believed that for a second- indisputable biological evidence only supported a strong chemical reaction in the brain, not that those people were any more suited to each other than he would be to Dummy.

“I do not believe in a single ‘perfect’ person for someone. That is illogical and limiting,” T’Challa says, wrinkling his nose in distaste.

“Agreed. I mean what if either one of us was a total ass? Is that seriously the best the other person would get? Talk about awful. Not to mention that the biological basis of the bond only _promotes_ human bonding, it doesn’t _ensure_ it, nor does it ensure compatibility. Plus people like to assume kink compatibility, relationship compatibility, sexual compatibility, and general lifestyle compatibility are all the same thing. In short people are idiots,” he says. He and Pepper were all kinds of compatible, but they just didn’t work in a romantic relationship. They weren’t all that compatible sexually either but they managed to work with that just fine, probably because they pretty much matched each other perfectly as far as kink went. Who knew?

T’Challa smiles, “you know I have not met many people who make that distinction but I agree. Though that is almost certainly due to my incompatibility with near everyone I have met. I do not make a very good sub.” The comment isn’t meant to be self-depreciative, Tony can tell, but it makes him snort in disbelief nonetheless.

“Or you’ve only ever dealt with Doms who don’t know how to handle a sub that has been trained since birth to hold themselves with a large amount of authority. I doubt people would view you as a competent leader if you fit America’s idea of a sub neatly,” he says. People liked to criticize Pepper heavily and she by no means carried herself the way people thought a sub should when she was with him. He never expected her to either, especially after he appointed her CEO. People just wouldn’t take her seriously even though she was extremely competent, more so than him in some areas. That didn’t stop people from assuming that her being a switch- or half sub as people liked to assume- would somehow interfere with her ability to lead. Wakanda might not discriminate against subs but he doubted they’d like a flimsy leader.

T’Challa rolls his eyes, “America’s idea of a sub is a slave, and not in the negotiated kind of way,” he says, distaste coloring his tone. “So no, Wakanda would not appreciate a leader that could not possibly hold any kind of control over the country sub or not. But I am curious about your capabilities as a Dom. I have never met one that did was not threatened by my position,” he says. Tony didn’t doubt that, and given the obvious dominance T’Challa held naturally he doubted any Dom knew what to do with that. Accept it was what they should have done. It shouldn’t matter how dominant T’Challa was in his political life or anywhere else, when he was a sub that would be his position and he’d know it. But most Doms didn’t understand that.

“I don’t care that you’re a king, T’Challa. I’m not so insecure in my orientation that I feel the need to be threatened by my sub having power. Besides, I very much prefer that my sub be in a position of power anyways, it makes the submission worth having.” Some flimsy sub doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted just because he wanted it wasn’t his style. First, he had no clue how to gauge limits with a sub like that and in his experience they weren’t fond of _setting_ limits to begin with. That was a big no-no for him legally given his position, and personally because it reminded him too much of Howard. More than that though it was far more of a rush to have someone with an actual backbone submit to him because it make him in particular better than some other Dom- not everyone could handle a sub like that.

“Out of curiosity how did that develop? Your culture is not fond of a sub with a backbone. Or a sub without one. I am unsure how a sub is to function in America, they appear to be demonized no matter what they do,” T’Challa says, frowning. So Tony knew from his experiences with Pepper and Rhodey. Except Rhodey was a next level badass and punched the only superior in the army stupid enough to try and Dom him into doing what he wanted. Needless to say that guy’s life was ruined after Tony was done with it and he got fired from the army. To rub salt in the wound Rhodey got his position too.

“Yeah, subs are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. My fondness of subs with a penchant for pissing people off is a mix of ego and a really shitty childhood.” Howard wasn’t much fond of limits and due to his kicking Tony’s ass too Tony ended up identifying more with his mother than his father. Limits in kink ended up pretty important to him even if they fell to the wayside everywhere else until rather recently.

“Ego? I would assume that having an ego would mean preferring subs _without_ backbones,” T’Challa says.

“Yeah, to a fake narcissist maybe. If the person was always willing to do what you say it doesn’t mean much. That’s like being happy gravity held you to the planet today, ohh, you’re totally a great Dom, all hail your infinite skills,” Tony says sarcastically, earning a laugh from T’Challa. “No, that’s just not for me because I actually like to work for my submission. It means that after the end of the night I know my sub enjoyed themselves because they would have pointed out if they didn’t and there really isn’t a better feeling than that. Plus it’s an ego booster to deal with a difficult sub and come out on top, obviously.” People always wondered how his relationship with Pepper worked and that was all part of the thrill for him. Let them wonder, it just meant they weren’t as skilled as he was.

T’Challa seems to consider him for a moment, head tilted to the side. “You are odd, certainly not mentally well, but you are not the unstable egotistical ass your team described, nor are you the person you present to the media. I… if you are alright with it I would like to see where this might go, if anywhere,” he says.

Tony startles, just about falling out of his chair because he hadn’t expected that but he regains himself quickly. “Sure, if that’s what you want. We should probably discuss expectations first, though,” he says. It only made sense, especially coming from different cultures that apparently treated subs in considerably different ways.

*

Rhodey frowns at Tony, confused on when he started talking to Hope again. Last he checked they stopped speaking years ago after some disaster wedding or something like that. “I don’t really want to be that guy but I also don’t want to see you hurt. Is it possible that she wants something?” he asks. He’s seen his best friend hurt enough; he didn’t want to see Tony get hurt yet again. This time might be the last time he tries to reach out given how much he got burned when he did. Rhodey has met some guys with bad luck but Tony has to take the cake and the ice cream too. It didn’t help that he spent half of his time being an asshole and the other half of the time struggling to show how he wanted to connect.

“‘Course she wanted something, Rhodes. I already got the Ant-Man suit back for her. So do you want to come to dinner with me or not?” Tony asks as he rearranges Rhodey’s legs. Rhodey didn’t much _like_ having to get Tony help with pretty much everything but his physical therapist said he’d relearn things eventually and Tony was good about only stepping in when something wasn’t working. He had never really considered how well Tony knew him because he usually took care of Tony, not the other way around. But if this incident has taught him anything it’s that Tony knew him a lot better than he ever gave the man credit for.

“Yeah I guess, it isn’t like I’ve got anything better to do with myself,” he mumbles. Between physical therapy, trying to relearn how to do everything all over again from a different height, and the general inability to function in the chair at the moment he was a bit limited in what he could do. Tony at least visited regularly though apparently van Dyne was taking up more of Tony’s time now that she crawled back out of the woodwork.

“Hey, I’m sure you could find something to do. You do have a whole apartment build for you,” Tony points out. Yeah, because Tony has always had a habit of overdoing things he got an entire apartment renovated to cater specifically to a person in a wheelchair. It was nice to at least be able to make his own coffee even if he hadn’t quite mastered pants yet.

“Oh sure, I could wheel myself around it again. Dinner with your sketchy old friend sound infinitely more interesting than that,” Rhodey says.

“Okay Hope is not sketchy, we just fell out of touch for awhile. She doesn’t like Lang either, you two can bond over that. Besides, if I hadn’t gotten that Ant-Man suit back from her I wouldn’t be on speaking terms with T’Challa so there’s that,” Tony says, grinning.

Uh huh, and then there was the T’Challa issue too. Damn. “And how is that going?” Rhodey asks more to gauge how good or bad this was about to go so he could be prepared to help Tony out either way.

Tony thinks on his answer for a long moment while he hands Rhodey his coat to put on. “Honestly surprisingly well,” he says eventually, “I mean neither one of us really trusts the other but we’re talking and it isn’t horrible.”

Rhodey is pretty sure he should be worried about how Tony categorized his communications with people. “Do you even know if you’re compatible like… at all?” he asks. That was probably Tony’s number one problem with people- they just didn’t seem to understand him or he flat out didn’t understand them. Usually it was a mix of both.

“Personality and opinion wise yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re compatible there. He seems to think he’s a difficult sub though, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because the Doms he’s had the misfortune of dealing with were incompetent,” Tony says. Rhodey snorts, shaking his head because that was all he needed to know about T’Challa to know that he and Tony were compatible on some level kink- wise. Tony had a thing for plucky subs, which was odd considering everyone else seemed to hate them. But then Tony has always liked a challenge, and thinking outside the box was one of his favorite past times. It made sense that he wouldn’t like the traditional sub; he didn’t like the traditional anything.

“Well I guess he’s found the right person to do his worst with. I never will understand your preferences,” he says. He’s never felt the need to be difficult unless something about the dynamic felt off or some jackass Dom overstepped their bounds.

Tony shrugs, “I’ll never understand why everyone else prefers the perfectly obedient sub right off the bat. Where’s the foreplay and excitement? You all sound dead boring to me,” Tony tells him.

“That’s because you don’t find the excitement in obeying right away like a normal human,” Rhodey points out.

“I’m a perfectly normal human, it’s everyone else that’s weird. Now come on wheels, we’re going to be late and Hope will skin me if I’m late. She has a thing for being punctual,” Tony says, wrinkling his nose.

“I don’ know if I should be offended by that,” Rhodey says, considering.

“Would you prefer to be called legs?” Tony asks.

“Keep in mind that I’m at the perfect height to punch you in the dick,” Rhodey says, raising an eyebrow as Tony half turns to shield said body part.

“If you could not do that I would be eternally grateful,” Tony says. Rhodey shakes his head and rolls himself out the door, managing to turn to lock the door without hitting anything this time. Well, that was a small improvement at least.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long! I've been a busy bee.
> 
> Warnings for ableism and ableist language.

Tony didn’t exactly _plan_ on being the third wheel to Hope and Rhodey’s date but to be fair he didn’t think they intended on being soul mates and making googley eyes at each other all night. He was happy for them both though and he thought they’d make a great match. “I need you to be honest here Tony, do you think this thing with Hope will work out for me?” he asks.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Tony asks, frowning a little. If anyone could make a relationship work it’d be Hope and Rhodey, they were both the efficient types and they would actually communicate and such.

Rhodey rolls his eyes at him, “come on Tony, I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I’m a cripple,” he says as if this was some sort of obvious fact that meant something.

“You don’t have full use of your legs, so what? Is that supposed to like… impact something or something?” Tony asks, genuinely confused as to what Rhodey was on about.

“Don’t play stupid Tony, I’m not exactly an ideal sub. I can’t even feel anything below the waist, how the hell do you work with that?” Rhodey asks.

“No clue but that doesn’t mean you can’t find out. You’re hardly the first sub to be in a wheel chair. Maybe you should take a class or something, that might give you some ideas on how to deal with your current body and how to be a good sub despite you mobility issues,” Tony says. He’s never had a disabled sub but he didn’t think it’d be much of an issue per se, at least so long as boundaries and limitations were clear but that was the same with any sub. Just in this case those boundaries were a bit more physical in nature.

Rhodey sighs, “of couse you’d be fine with all of this. I should have suspected as much. You’ve always liked a challenge of sorts and this would definitely give you a run for your money. I just… I can’t be the sub I was before and what if that isn’t good enough?” he asks.

“Than Hope is an asshole and you’re better off anyways, Rhodey. This isn’t the end of your days as a good sub; you just need to figure out how to deal with being a sub without the use of your legs. You can do that I know you can, and if you want I can help.” He had a few ideas already though he wasn’t entirely sure if they were to Rhodey’s tastes kink-wise. Hope was plenty resourceful though, Tony had no doubt that she and Rhodey could work something out.

Rhodey seems to consider his words for a long while before he speaks again. “You really believe that?” he asks quietly.

“Have I ever been known for saying stuff I don’t believe no matter how stupid?” he asks. He had a bit of a reputation for being quotable and the only time he went back on his opinions is when he learned they were wrong. Otherwise he saw little reason to say things he didn’t mean and it got him into a lot of trouble. People didn’t often like that level of honesty, and the media liked to run with his words in ways he didn’t intend for them to.

“Yeah I suppose that’s true. But I just don’t see how I can… I don’t know, do stuff like this. Like I can’t even kneel, what the hell is that?” Rhodey throws his hands up in frustration and Tony supposes he could see where Rhodey was coming from but Rhodey had a point- he’s sort of always enjoyed a challenge and anything that fell outside the norm.

“So what? Like I said, you aren’t the first person in a wheel chair to have run into these issues so look stuff up, research. People have had to have come up with different ways to submit that work better with the way your body works now. So you can’t kneel, find something new that works just as well. Trust me, Hope is resourceful and creative, and she likes a challenge as much as I do. I doubt your legs will be much of a hindrance to her.” If it was an issue it wouldn’t be Rhodey’s problem anyways, it would be Hope’s. It would hardly be Rhodey’s fault his Dom was too lacking in the creativity and human decency department to find a way to work with his disability.

“Thanks man. I appreciate that,” Rhodey says eventually but Tony knows what the words mean to him even if they weren’t eloquent. Rhodey wasn’t typically self-conscious, that was usually Tony’s thing, but he was happy to help where he could. It wasn’t like he got the opportunity often because Rhodey sort of always had his shit together, for once it was nice to take care of Rhodey instead of the other way around.

*

“So he’s unsure at the moment? I sensed that,” Hope says, drinking her tea delicately. It was an odd gesture from someone Tony didn’t typically associate with a delicate nature.

“He is and if you make it worse don’t think I won’t do everything in my power to destroy you. I will and you know damn well that I’m more than capable. He’s been through enough lately, he doesn’t need anymore bullshit,” Tony tells her, tone harsh and commanding.

It catches Hope by surprise, he can tell, but she recovers quickly. “I never really took you for the shovel talk type but I suppose you have been friends with Rhodey for a good two and a half decades. That’s a lot of history,” she says and pauses, her shoulders falling a little. “I might need that to be honest. Something tells me that Rhodey won’t be an easy sub to deal with.”

Tony would like to argue that because he knew the statement to be false, but that was before Rhodey’s life took a massive turn for the screwy. “You have to understand that everything in his life as he knew it is gone. His military career, his superhero status, his legs, everything is affected by his new mobility issues and the physical therapy helps but it isn’t going to get him his legs back and we all know it. He can’t do most anything the way he used to and the learning curve is a hard one to adjust to for him right now. Your appearance now was piss poor in timing but I guess there’s no better time than the present to learn how to be a sub with a disability.” He would have had to learn eventually anyways, might as well do it with someone who was supposed to be his soul mate and perfect match.

Besides, there had to be whole communities for this sort of thing with tips. Tony was going to look into it if for no other reason than curiosity because disability was not something he had ever considered in kink. Now he had an excuse to look it up he guessed, and he wasn’t sure Rhodey would do the research himself. He knew that this was taking its toll on Rhodey even if he didn’t want to admit it and Tony has always enjoyed learning new things and expanding knowledge. Plus thinking of things differently would certainly be a help to him in other areas. Doing things outside the box was the way he preferred to do things and if Hope was going to come to him for help he needed to be prepared for that.

“I’ve never had a sub with a disability before,” Hope says, “I’m not even certain where to begin with that but I guess I’ll have to learn.”

“Guess you will, but I’d expect Rhodey to resist a little. He isn’t any more sure of how to do this than you. Tread lightly,” he advises, a slight undertone of protectiveness to his tone.

Hope smiles just a little, “don’t worry Tony, I have no intentions on hurting Rhodey.”

*

T’Challa is not sure how this was supposed to work or even if this will work. Tony stands in the center of the room confidently, seemingly unworried about T’Challa despite his history of being a difficult sub. It was not as if he neglected to warn Tony either, he had if for no other reason than to prepare him for the inevitable failure of the dynamic. T’Challa was not certain how he managed to kill nearly every relationship he has had with a Dom but it seemed to be a specialty of his. But he refused to deal with incompetence simply to stroke someone’s ego- it was not his problem if a Dom was bad at being a Dom though they certainly liked to resent him like it was.

“Kneel,” Tony tells him in a quite voice though the command in it was impossible to miss. Interesting- T’Challa was generally used to more immediate force, especially in the tone of voice. He does as he is asked though and settles on his knees but only because he was curious, not because he felt any sort of need to follow Tony’s instructions. Research suggested all subs felt the need to obey their Doms but T’Challa was living proof that that research has only unearthed one kind of sub. He has never felt compelled to listen to anyone’s orders and he was more than happy to tell a Dom that. They did not like it much but he had little patience for wasting his own time and it was useless to waste someone else’s time too. Voicing his feelings simply saved everyone time and effort, he did not do it to intentionally insult people.

“You’re a king, T’Challa, present yourself like one,” Tony tells him, tone sharp and commanding. _That_ T’Challa felt, his back straightening and his muscles relaxing almost against his will. _Oh_. That was certainly interesting though he could have resisted had he wanted to. But he did not and that was new to him. “You look surprised, why?” Tony asks. His tone was less harsh, but the command still tinged what his words.

“I do not usually feel compelled to follow orders. Nor has anyone ever acknowledged my political position as a sub.” Some were brave enough to mention it outside of the dynamic but that was rare. He was certain that no one would have ever mentioned his being the king if he was back home.

He can hear Tony step forward towards him but he keeps his head bowed slightly until Tony tips his head up. “You’re a king, you run a country, and you’re a world leader too. That’s impressive for a number of reasons and it gives you power. I’m not in the business of letting that give you power _here_. Here you’re my sub and you’ll know your place. Being a king doesn’t change that, but it does mean I know you know what good behavior is. I expect you to reflect your position in the way you present yourself so don’t give me some half baked kneel again. Do it like you mean it,” Tony tells him, command heavy in his voice and he lets his fingers fall from under T’Challa’s chin.

His head falls back down into a bow on its own accord and he murmurs, “ndiyaqonda,” without thinking, realizing too late that Tony did not speak the language. He does not respond so T’Challa supposes he did not need a translation to know that T’Challa agreed to the terms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ndiyaqonda= 'I understand' in Xhosa (according to a language site, I don't speak the language). For all intents and purposes that will serve as the Wakandan language because that's what's being used in the movie. Plus I wanted to include a tad of T'Challa's language skills in this if for no other reason than it being weird if he didn't speak his own language at least once to Tony.


	8. Chapter 8

T’Challa was not at all used to acceptance when it came to his position as prince let alone king, although he supposed there was not much time to find anyone who would take a sub that was also a king. He doubted that he would have found anyone though; people did not like his being a prince let alone being a step higher than that. Tony does act threatened at all though, quietly accepting that T’Challa had the kind of power over a large group of people that most couldn’t even imagine having. Some days T’Challa could not imagine it either.

“How did you end up so open to the idea of a sub having so much power?” he asks. Tony had mentioned Pepper being promoted as a sub and being the first. Fact-checking proved his words were not lies and a bit more research told him America had been confused by Tony’s actions. _He_ chose to give Pepper that position, _he_ allowed her to have more power in his own company than him. The public did not understand why a Dom would allow his sub more power than him. Tony had reacted largely by laughing it off and telling the media they needed a better idea of what power looked like. That was shortly before the self-destructive binge drinking and partying that Pepper had publicly stated she wanted nothing to do with.

Tony looks up from the paperwork he was looking over and frowns, “you know considering you’re from a country that supposedly treats subs equally you’ve dealt with a lot of shit for being a sub,” Tony points out.

T’Challa shakes his head though because Tony does not understand. Wakanda was nothing like America to its subs. “That is because I do not seem like a sub, not because I am a sub. Wakanda is not some sort of utopia, the reason inequalities exist for switches in particular is because my country has a very specific idea of what a Dom and sub is. There is no cross over- to my country I am far too close to a switch for comfort.” Doms did not know what to do with a sub like him and it seemed that that rang true for the rest of the world too, minus Tony apparently. Tony’s easy acceptance has thrown him and he is not sure what to do with it.

“They’re essentialist, then?” Tony asks, moving his papers aside to give T’Challa more attention.

“Essentialist?” T’Challa asks, only vaguely familiar with the word. He was fluent in several languages but there were still times when things confused him in translation. The use of contractions in English was still confusing to him at times, and the way the American south used contractions was like an entirely different language. It took him a solid five minutes to figure out what ‘y’all’d’ve’ was. Scientific terms, or sociological terms, were another point of confusion for him because they were obscure. And slang. American internet language was a confusing mess of letters. He supposed Wakanda would look quite confusing to an outsider as well though, even to countries that had similar languages or language roots. Isolation mean they developed differently.

“Yeah- the assumption that existing a certain way will mean you will function a certain way. Men tend to find women confusing because women don’t act like their essentialist stereotypes and it throws them. Pepper complains about it a lot. Anyways, it sounds like Wakanda has no idea how to handle you because they think that being a sub means you should act a specific way. It’s why everyone is confused by switches, they don’t ascribe to the binary Dom-sub ideal neatly,” Tony says.

Oh, right. He read about that in some college course he took in his teens, which explained the familiarity and why the knowledge was distant. It has been a long time since he was in school. “Right, yes. Wakanda is deeply entrenched in those ideals and it has plagued me for some time. They would not like you either, you are confusing,” he says.

Tony laughs, his eyes crinkling at the edge. “I’m only confusing because you expect me to act a certain way because I’m a Dom. Ironic when you don’t like when that happens to you, but you’re not alone. I’ve always been a little odd because I don’t really get a lot of social rules. It lands me in hot water a lot,” he admits.

T’Challa raises an eyebrow because that was not what he was told, but Tony had given the information freely and unthinkingly. It was unlikely to be a lie. “You do not understand social rules?” he asks, curious.

“Not really, no,” Tony says, shaking his head. “People want honest and get mad when I tell the truth, people want sex no strings attached and get mad when I take their word for it, people want me to work as a team and listen to people, they get mad when I do that. Not to mention I’m supposed to be greedy because I’m rich, but got flack when I was, I’m supposed to donate to charity because I’m rich- which is fair, but get accused of doing it for the press when I do. But when I _don’t_ I’m the literal devil. Social rules make no sense because they’re constantly contradicting themselves so I gave up on trying to find the right level of honesty, or attachment, or charity donation and started doing what I wanted. People were going to hate me regardless of what I did, might as well have them hate me for being me.” Tony shrugs, unrepentant about this. Perhaps that was why Steve Rogers disliked him so much- the good Captain was not so willing to let go.

“You would loath politics,” T’Challa says, smiling just a little because he understood the way people had contradictory standards for others. Especially those in power. Criticism was always helpful, but sometimes people complained about the most bizarre of things. Like T’Challa not being married of all things. He did not know how being married would make his politics better considering a family life would distract him from his country’s needs in theory.

“I do, politics are sticky and messy and this is why I should have always stuck to engineering but its too late and I almost ended the world so I should probably deal with the political fall out of that,” Tony says, sighing deeply.

“Yes you should, though I have a hard time figuring out how you made a genocidal AI. You have already built an AI, you know how they work, how did you go wrong?” he asks out of genuine curiosity.

Tony sighs again and rubs his temples. “Technically Bruce and I only ran the program, the stone sort of… did it’s own thing but if I hadn’t ran the program the stone would have continued being useless.”

That was odd for a few reasons and T’Challa debates on whether or not he wants to say something for a moment before deciding that he did. It would be useful to know how Tony’s mind works if he was going to be subject to it himself. “Why run the program? And why specify that Bruce ran it with you than take the blame? You are both at fault if you both ran the program, if it was only you than only you are at fault.” That was something the Avengers did too, T’Challa has noticed. Someone else was always involved in Tony’s actions but strangely only he was to take the blame. He found it confusing.

“I uh… there was some shit with Wanda and she made me see something. I thought I saw the end of the world; I was _convinced_ I saw it. Steve, in the dream, he asked me why I didn’t do more so I ran the program to try and do more. Bruce and I were only looking to see if Ultron was possible, we didn’t think it would be possible, that he’d kill JARVIS, and end up being genocidal. We weren’t even sure he was _possible_ ,” Tony says, shaking his head.

T’Challa frowns again because that sounded… accidental. He would think Tony was lying if he did not seem intent on taking responsibility for his mistake. “You accidentally created a genocidal AI?” he asks to clarify.

“Basically,” Tony says.

“That… is deeply unfortunate… What did you mean by Wanda making you see something though, why would she do that? Are you not working for the same cause?” he asks. And why did the Avengers blame Tony for something that sounded minimally preventable? It went without saying that Bruce and Tony should not have gone around toying with alien stones and for good reason now, but no one could possibly predict running a test on something would end in the apocalypse. And why would Wanda purposely frighten Tony with visions of the end of the world? He gets the feeling that he’s missing a large part of the picture in regards to what was happening with the Avengers.

*

Pepper should have known that this would happen and she should have never pressed Natasha’s limits the way she had just to prove a point. She’s been spending too much time with Tony, thinking stupid things like this would end well. Natasha struggles to gain control of her breathing, curled on the ground with her head resting on her knees. Pepper sets a glass of water down beside her and sits a good distance away to wait. Touching Natasha was likely a bad idea at the moment and she was unsure of how Natasha dealt with panic attacks. She barely knew how to handle Tony when he got like this let alone a master spy assassin.

It occurs to her that she’s in over her head here and that scares her. She didn’t like not knowing what was going on and that had been why her relationship with Tony failed. They both should have known that the kind of compatible they were would never translate to romance but neither of them stopped to think for a minute and it had taken a toll. She was thankful she hadn’t lost her friendship with Tony though; she cared about him still even if their relationship didn’t work out.

That did make her wonder how the hell her relationship with Natasha was supposed to work out when she was less predictable than Tony ever was. “S-sorry,” Natasha croaks out, drawing Pepper’s attention away from her thoughts.

“There’s nothing to apologize for Natasha, I should have known that you wouldn’t have been prepared for this based off what you told me before. I shouldn’t have pushed you,” she says. Natasha was used to pain, suffering, and not really being there during any interaction with kink. She was also used to having an ulterior motive for being there and after her initial failure at manipulating Pepper she hasn’t tried anything. Pepper has been watching too. But she should have known that the sort of sensual interactions she liked would have thrown Natasha into a panic; it was too much for her too soon.

“I thought I was fine,” Natasha tells her, slowly moving into a less cramped position and finding her water. “Thanks,” she murmurs and picks the water up, draining the cup quickly.

“Of course you did, you’re not used to taking care of yourself. You do what you need to do to make it through; the problem is that this wasn’t a survival situation. I should have known that this would have been too much for you to handle right now. Taking things slowly so you could acclimatize to feeling out your limits, likes, dislikes, and pleasures would have been ideal.” But no, Pepper had forged on ahead because she knew Natasha wasn’t ready and wanted to prove it to her too. Stupid and reckless, how was Natasha supposed to trust her now? _She_ wouldn’t trust her.

Natasha lets out a sharp laugh, “wow, we are not good at this. I thought soul mates were supposed to just _know_ and all of that shit? Whatever. Guess we’re even now in the screwing each other up department,” she mumbles.

“That shouldn’t be some sort of game we keep track of,” Pepper notes. God knew that would only devolve into a tit for tat relationship in which all they did was cause the other pain and suffering. Neither of them needed that in their lives.

“No it shouldn’t. But we know where the other stands right now for sure at least. That puts us on equal footing so now when we do whatever one can’t feel guilty for fucking over the other. We’ve both messed up pretty big. Can you get me some more water?” she asks, holding out her cup to Pepper.

It isn’t until she comes back and Natasha drains another cup that Pepper remembers Tony’s comment about never seeing Natasha eat or drink in front of others. She has no idea what to do with that kind of trust when she just thoroughly broke any trust Natasha should have had in her so she decides the only thing she could do was never break that trust again.

*

Hope has always been resourceful but having a disabled sub was not something she prepared for, especially not one that was unaware of his own limits at the moment. She was fairly certain going through a trauma like that would create all sorts of limits Rhodey didn’t have before falling and she wasn’t all that keen on testing the waters to find them. But to a point she didn’t have a choice- there would be at least one thing that went wrong and she was going to have to learn to deal with it. Rhodey too.

It doesn’t help that he’s suspicious of his own worth, something she didn’t like because he might try to push himself either physically or mentally when he shouldn’t. “How did you and Tony even end up friends?” Rhodey asks her. A safe subject she knew, Rhodey knew plenty about Tony and he was protective of him too. Trying to figure her out and acting like it was for Tony’s safety and wellbeing rather than his own was safer.

“He had a lot of bullies and I had a lot of rage at my father for abandoning me and my mom for dying. We made a sort of unspoken deal, I punch his bullies, and he messes up my father’s projects. He was good enough at it that Hank became convinced Howard was sabotaging him. It never occurred to him that it was me or Tony.” That had been the point of the whole thing. Hanks hadn’t been fond of Howard anyways so it hadn’t been hard for him to assume Howard was trying to screw him instead of his genius kid and Howard’s genius kid.

“You beat up his bullies?” Rhodey asks, eyebrow rising in disbelief.

“What? Don’t think I can throw a punch? I can, and I’m good at it too. Last week I beat Tony up,” she says proudly.

“I thought you were supposed to beat up his bullies?” Rhodey says, seemingly recognizing her previous comment as a joke despite the truth of it.

“He has inner demons,” she says and Rhodey bursts out laughing.

“Good answer. What happened to you two though, you get along surprisingly well so what happened to that?” he asks.

That was a fair question. “We both had a lot of problems, Rhodey. When his parents died he went off the rails and I was in no position to offer support, by hatred for my father was near all-consuming at that point in my life. He went off to try and forget every bad thing that’s ever happened to him by finding the bottom of every bottle he could find and I stole my father’s research and started a company with someone I thought I could ruin Pym’s life with. It backfired on me the same way Tony’s actions backfired on him. I came back because I needed the Ant-man suit. I missed him too, but I thought it’d be far too late to reconcile.” Thankfully she had been wrong and her small inside joke had actually gotten somewhere. She hadn’t expected Tony to be so responsive to her, not after the way things were left between them.

He had as many abandonment issues as she did, she thought he’d hate her for leaving him but he didn’t seem that concerned. She supposed that was what she wanted though she hadn’t hoped to wish for it, and she got Rhodey as a bonus out of it.

“Funny he never mentioned you to me when you seem to have a lot of history,” Rhodey says.

“If he ever mentioned a Jan he did. I used to go by my mother’s name, I still use her last name,” she says. “If he didn’t mention me by that name I have no idea why he never said anything.” She never said much of anything to her friends but that was because they didn’t understand her burning rage at her father like Tony did.

“You went by dead mother’s name?” Rhodey asks, frowning.

“I told you, I had issues.” Still did, but she knew how to handle them better now. Now she just had ants march other dead ants into her father’s coffee in the mornings.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not even sure how this chapter came to be. The Accords were never supposed to be brought up at all, but I do suppose it made sense for Pepper and Natasha to talk it out eventually.

“I never should have pushed you like that,” Pepper says but Natasha isn’t worried about it.

“Maybe not but it doesn’t bother me,” she says honestly.

“Natasha-” Pepper starts but Natasha cuts her off.

“Look, I don’t like when people claim perfection,” she says. “You pushed me knowing you shouldn’t have because sensuality freaks me out when it actually involves _me_ instead of someone I’m pretending to be, we both know that. But its… its comforting, in a way, to know that you aren’t infallible.” It always set her on edge when people pretended that they were infallible, that they never hurt people or that they would always do the right thing. It was what had set her on edge with Stark- the man had a habit of assuming he was always right.

Pepper doesn’t seem to know what to do with her words, frowning in confusion. “You’re… _comforted_ by the fact that I blatantly ignored limits I knew existed?” she asks skeptically.

It sounded far more disturbing phrased like that but Natasha has long since given up on pretending that her mind worked like other peoples and Pepper was considerably normal as far as mental health went. Actually she was quite ahead in the mental health department with a high degree of stability and dependability. Her record as Stark Industries CEO was almost as impeccable as Tony’s though his near perfect tract record has always confused her. Aside from his antics sometimes affecting stocks and the massive crash his company took right after he announced his stopping weapons production the company rarely suffered. Pepper had the same near spotless track record though Natasha had a far easier time seeing how she managed than Stark.

“Somewhat, yes,” she says, answering Pepper’s question. “See, I don’t really develop relationships and I don’t maintain them when I do. Relationships are a means to an end most of the time, which was how the Red Room intended it to be. I was never meant to make connections but in my attempt to break that part of my conditioning I have noticed a strange trend in people assuming they’re good. People are content to believe that they never hurt people, even get offended when people tell them that they’ve been hurt. So I’m leery when people pretend that that’ll never happen. You can’t make that claim now without me knowing that’s a lie,” she explains. There would be no promises that Pepper would never hurt her, that she was somehow incapable of it, because they both knew that to be untrue. Natasha would settle for the much more realistic promise that Pepper would do her best _not_ to push her like that again.

Real people make mistakes, only fools thought themselves above that. She disliked when people promised her the world when they could only give her a globe. She would have been perfectly happy with the globe but instead people were intent on lying to her to make themselves seem better than they were.

Pepper frowns, opens her mouth, and then shuts it again. She seems to consider what she was going to say for a long moment before speaking. “I understand your reservation in having any desire to develop a relationship with someone who isn’t prepared to be realistic. But you have no problem with people who think themselves infallible. If you did you wouldn’t like Steve Rogers much at all,” she says.

“As apposed to Tony? Yeah, he’s never assumed he was right when he wasn’t before,” she says sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Steve at least took a second to think things through before acting, and he did his best to do the right thing. Stark rushed into everything with only his own assumptions in mind.

“Don’t you start that with me. I have known Tony Stark for nearly two decades and dated him for a quarter of that time, I know him far better than you claim to so don’t you dare suggest I don’t know about his many shortcomings. But he didn’t ignore sixty percent of the world’s countries telling him to slow down before _invading_ them with only his own agendas in mind. I don’t necessarily agree with Tony’s solution, but it was Steve that told him to work as a team. I’m sure you can see where he got understandably confused when he got screwed for trying to work as a team with the rest of the world,” Pepper says and Natasha clenches her jaw.

The Accords weren’t the best solution and she doubted Tony was unaware of the flaws- he did have plans to ratify several sections to better accommodate for their varied powers and of course their rights as a team and as people. But ignoring the information Steve brought from Bucky was negligent at best and he only did so because he didn’t like Steve in the moment and he couldn’t see it. _Arrogant_. “Steve was doing the best he could with what he had. And we had no choice but to deal with the five other Winter Soldiers, we couldn’t just _leave_ them there for a team of ill equipped baseline humans, they’d be torn apart,” she says. She knew what kind of training they had; she fought Bucky on several occasions and got shot by him once. _Five_ more people with that kind of training and actual willpower would have been nothing short of a disaster that Tony was just content to ignore.

“Steve barely had an argument to begin with and what little he had was lost to Bucky. He talked a big game about agendas for a man who allowed eleven people to die at the hands of a rookie Avenger because someone said _Bucky_. Not to mention the rest of the damage he caused looking for the man He should have kept his mouth shut about agendas when he is so clearly clouded by his own,” Pepper says fiercely. “And of course baseline humans would have been torn apart by the Winter Soldiers, that’s why Tony risked his ass to help only to have that thrown in his face- once he had _actual_ evidence, mind. The word of a brainwashed man is no word at all, but FRIDAY’s evidence was solid- more proof that Steve’s judgment was clouded.” Pepper shakes her head sharply, her jaw clenching in annoyance.

Natasha has no argument for that because Bucky was Steve’s biggest weakness, always has been. But she still thought he was right. “So you agree with what happened to the team in the end? Being tossed into a supermax prison like that?” she asks, curious to see how Pepper would twist that. There was nothing right about being shoved in a prison to be out of sight, out of mind. They all knew damn well what that was code for in regards to the government. She’s been on both ends of the supermax prison and it was never fun.

Pepper raises an eyebrow, “do I, a baseline human, agree that throwing a team of ‘heroes’ with no intentions of thinking about my life into jail for breaking a laws _Steve knew the consequences of_ is a good idea? You bet your ass I do. I may not agree with the specifics exactly, but I do agree with my right to be kept safe from people like you thinking you’re doing something good for people like me when you aren’t,” Pepper says sharply. She takes a deep breath then but something tells Natasha to keep quiet because Pepper wasn’t done. And Natasha, admittedly, hadn’t considered Pepper’s position as a baseline human either. But she didn’t agree with Pepper’s assessment exactly either. That prison was a great front for doing whatever the government wanted to the people inside of it. Nothing about it was a good idea, she knew from extensive experience.

Pepper takes a deep breath, “Look, I never wanted to get into this debate but maybe it’s best to get this out of the way now. One of Tony’s many shortcomings is his temper. He’s always concerned about doing the right thing but sometimes he cares in very stupid ways. Like threatening terrorists and then ending up surprised when they nearly kill me blowing up his house. That isn’t the only example of an Avenger going wrong and I am rather annoyed that your right to nearly kill me is outside the law when it shouldn’t be. If I almost kill someone I’m held accountable. Why should you get a free pass just because you think you’re a hero? From where I’m standing all of you are fighting for yourselves, not me. But at least Tony knows to admit when he’s being selfish.”

Natasha didn’t know how to argue with Pepper’s last statement because it hits too close to home for her. Her words all that time ago to Loki come to mind- that she’d like to wipe out the red in her ledger. Her reason to fight has always been selfish, but she liked to think that her attempts at heroism didn’t stop being good simply because she had a selfish reason to fight. But Pepper’s argument is still flawed, “you think that we should be tossed into prisons if we don’t agree with how the law is enforced? That no matter how unfair a particular set of laws are that we should just follow them?” she asks because Natasha didn’t much like the sounds of that. The RAFT is a place that shouldn’t exist and it makes her uneasy to think Pepper agreed to any part of it. Jail for lack of compliance to the Accords was obvious- it was a law put forth and breaking the law tended to result in punishment. How Ross decided to go about that, though, made her skin crawl.

She shakes her head though, “no. There’s a difference between saying you should have laws on your actions and that I agree with the huge misstep in the Accords that resulted in the Avengers’ presence in the RAFT. But you are not so special that you get to risk the lives of people like me just because you think you’re doing the right thing. The Accords were designed to protect people like me and I know they weren’t perfect, but I believe in my right to be protected even if I disagree with a lot of what the Accords came to represent.”

*

“Okay seriously, you used to be good at this,” Hope tells Tony, throwing a piece of popcorn at him. “You need to up your game,” she says.

Tony snorts because it’s been _years_ since he’s sabotaged anything of Pym’s, sue him for being a little rusty on how to do it. “Excuse you, Miss ‘I drop dead ants into his coffee with the help of other ants’, my idea was way better than _that_ ,” he says. “What kind of monster makes ants throw their own brethren into coffee?” T’Challa looks completely lost on the conversation but Tony isn’t sure if it’s due to his not knowing certain slang phrases that were popular in America, Tony’s and Hope’s relationship, or the ant thing. In all fairness it could be any of the above, especially the ant thing because Tony was lost on that too.

“Was not,” Hope says, “you’ve lost your edge.”

“So have you, _ants_ , seriously?” Tony asks, offended that Tony was being insulted when Hope’s creativity was Scott Lang level bad. That friend of his Tony ended up looking into, Luis, now _he_ was creative. Pym should have picked him for the next Ant Man because he’d at least be interesting. Tony half wanted to toss him into the field just to see if he and Peter would start a full-on conversation about something ridiculous like flower arrangements or something.

“You want to hold Scott Lang hostage, ants are better than ‘you can’t have Lang back’,” Hope says, rolling her eyes at him.

“Since he is in my country I would prefer if you remove him,” T’Challa says, throwing his own opinion into the conversation somewhat hesitantly. The words themselves were confident, but the way he went about saying them makes Tony frown.

“You know you aren’t being held hostage down there, you’re allowed to speak. Especially since holding Lang hostage is kind of pertinent to you due to his current location. I don’t really keep my subs on their knees to shut them up; I just think you look cute like that. So feel free to contribute,” Tony says. He probably should have remembered some of what T’Challa said about Wakandan expectations for subs and explained what he expected in place of that.

“I’ve never been fond of Lang. He shrinks too small and he drinks all the coffee,” T’Challa says, clearly annoyed with this. Tony didn’t want to be the one to break it to him that he wasn’t exactly known for putting on a new pot of coffee either so he keeps quiet.

“I’m not fond of Lang because he told me I didn’t have a conscience despite having never met me. _And_ he snatched Rhodey out of the air and started waving him around like a god damn maraca,” Tony says, waving a hand around. Why Pym thought _he_ was worthy of being Ant Man Tony had no idea. Hope was a better option because she was intelligent, resourceful, creative, and she could punch the hell out of things. Tony was only good at most of those and he did okay.

“I’m not fond of Lang because I trained him to be as good as me to be Ant Man because apparently I wasn’t good enough,” Hope says bitterly. Tony had heard about Lang’s stupid ‘I’m replaceable’ theory but Tony called bullshit. Hank Pym has never cared about his daughter, he didn’t care that she was irreplaceable. He didn’t even _know_ Hope to know she wasn’t replaceable.

“Okay great, so we’ve concluded that we can make a show called ‘Everybody Hates Scott Lang’,” Rhodey says, “but that doesn’t really have anything to do with Pym. Why do we hate him again? I’m a little lost on all your history here,” Rhodey admits.

T’Challa looks relieved, “me too, I do not even know how Hank Pym is let alone why anyone dislikes him. It is nice to know I am not the only one.”

Hope frowns, “the guy who found the Pym Particle?” she asks.

Recognition sparks on T’Challa’s features and he nods, “ah, so he is related to that. Do not look at me like that, for all I knew the man had no relation to the Pym Particle at all and I would look like a fool if I said something.”

“How else did you think Scott got the suit?” Hope asks, still frowning.

“He told me he stole it, which is why I am confused about him being an Avenger now. Americans have some very loose heroing standards,” T’Challa says, a slight bit of judgment to his voice. Well, in T’Challa’s defense Scott could have stolen the suit from anyone, not just Pym, which was likely where the confusion happened.

“In all fairness they let me in,” Tony points out. He had a very uh… _colorful_ past, far more exciting than Scott Lang’s relatively boring past. His entire life could be summed up by ‘Scott don’t break that law, aw you’re in jail because you broke the law’. Tony liked to think he was more accomplished than that.

“In all fairness to you once you stop being a jackass you’re actually pretty excellent. And you own up to being a jackass, always a bonus,” Rhodey says.

“I do not think you are half as bad as people claim you are. I am not an inaccurate judge of character most of the time- so far you are the only person I have ever met that has not acted confused by me,” T’Challa says, leaning into Tony’s leg some.

“That’s because I don’t think ‘submissive’ equals ‘weak’ or ‘subservient’ or ‘lacks all basic personality traits and lives to serve’. I’m not sure it occurs to people that a sub can have a dominant personality,” Tony says honestly. People were often confused by Rhodey too, and Pepper if she was in the submissive role at that time. People seemed to be more confused by his acceptance of this fact.

Rhodey nods, “I can attest to that. People always looked at me weird when I told them I was a sub, now I don’t really get that confusion but I think that’s because of the chair,” he says, looking down at his current seat and mobility tool. Tony noticed that too but he didn’t say anything, not sure if Rhodey would appreciate brining attention to the chair. He didn’t like when Tony tried to help him or otherwise drew attention to his injury so Tony tended to leave things as they were unless Rhodey was really struggling.

“Thankfully you have a brain, Tony. I do very much appreciate that you do not assume that my being a strong person and a king somehow makes he an unworthy or unmanageable sub,” T’Challa says meaningfully. “Perhaps you can get back at your father by stealing the Wasp suit. It worked for Lang,” he adds to Hope, who looks like she’s considering it.

Tony reaches out and places his hand on T’Challa’s shoulder, squeezing a bit and leaving his hand there. It was a simple gesture but he can feel T’Challa relax a little bit against him and it makes him smile. For all of T’Challa’s worry about being a difficult sub Tony found him relatively easy to deal with if he just accepted T’Challa for what he was. Tony didn’t much prescribe to the notion that a sub had to have less power than their Dom to be a decent sub because he felt it undermined the dynamic. If a person was going to submit to you it didn’t matter that they were a king, so there was no reason to be threatened by it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Scott Lang I do, the poor thing gets so beat up in this though :( Though in all fairness he did bring a lot of it onto himself.


End file.
